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As someone who prefers to go on holiday by train, due to it being more ecofriendly than flying, this article is right up my street. These stations are historic, interesting and colourful. Check out the article for some inspiration.
Traveling by train is one of the easiest and most-convenient ways to visit places in Europe. From the SNCF in France to the PKP in Poland, there are …
5 Beautiful Train Stations in Europe
I am excited to host a guest post by the brilliant SimplyAlexJean, one of my fave bloggers. She has considered how to reduce the impact of everyday baking on the environment. I am all about being more ecofriendly so this article is perfect for my little blog. Check out Alex’s top tips.
Baking can be incredibly therapeutic and can be such a fun way to spend a morning or afternoon. What’s not as fun is the impact it can have environmentally if done without thought. For myself, I grew up baking and loving to experiment and make different treats. Now being more aware environmentally about my choices I realized a couple years ago there were some creative ways I could be more eco-friendly with my baking. Making these small switches honestly was so simple and, in many ways, it even made baking an easier task for me!
Do you enjoy baking? If so, read on to learn some easy ways to help make more eco-friendly choices while baking!
If you like to bake with fruits and or vegetables, then check out how you can buy them locally. This can be at a farmers’ market, through local shops or simply buying direct from the farm. By buying locally you cut down on plastic, transportation impacts as well as the environmental impact of storing and placing the produce in a shop or grocery store.
Depending on where you live this can prevent seasonal challenges, however you can stock up during the months when it’s available fresh and cut and freeze it for those months where it’s tougher to find. I love to do this with berries myself!
One of my favourite ways to be more environmentally conscious with my baking is to do bulk baking. What is bulk baking? Well, it means you’re doing all your baking at once. So, this could be baking multiple goods at once, or baking them one after the other (if different temperatures). How is this an eco-friendly idea? Well, it cuts down on electricity use when you can make multiple dishes at once and doing them one after another saves the electricity/gas from warming up for each individual dish.
Personally, I gather up a couple of recipes I need for the upcoming weeks, gather all the supplies needed and then I make everything I’ll need for the next couple of weeks at once. This not only helps reduce energy usage, but also gives you some time back too!
As I mentioned above, bulk baking is a great creative idea for the eco-conscious baker. However, once you’re done baking, you’re left with a lot of treats that you likely can’t eat all of before they begin to go stale or expire. A great tip is to put your baked goods into the freezer. Most baked goods freeze well and then you can take them out when you need them.
Freezing your baked goods also helps reduce waste and needing to toss food unnecessarily. This also helps with reducing environmental impacts as you can only have out what you can reasonably eat and are less likely to need to toss items.
This is personally one of my favourite switches I made. I did some quick research one day to investigate reusable items for baking and was shocked at the amount of gadgets and items that existed! There are so many items you can use when baking that are single use only.
Switching those to reusable items you can wash, and use again and again are so helpful! For myself I switched to using reusable muffin lines, silicone baking mats, beeswax wrap, and reusable jars for materials. These were simple swaps that I made once the previous items I owned were all used up. These items not only helped with reducing waste, but also save you money with not needing to purchase the same items all the time. Also, they are likely to save you space in your pantry too!
Lastly, one of my favourite switches is buying my materials needed for baking at a bulk refill shop. I bought some wonderful glass jars and had labels made for them to help with organization. When one of those jars is getting low, or empty I include in my weekly shop a trip to the bulk refill store and simply refill that material. This is a fantastic eco-friendly idea as it cuts down on packaging, as well as cuts down on waste as you can take exactly the amount you need.
Some of my favourites from the bulk refill store are flours, salt, sugar, chocolate chips, nuts, baking powder/soda, honey, and sprinkles.
Do you already do any of these when you bake? Are there any that stick out to you as switches you would consider making with future baking? These ideas are all great ways to help with reducing the energy and environmental impact that baking can have and will also likely help save you some dollars as well!
Thank you to Jamie for having me onto his blog! If you’d like to check out more of my content it can be found on my blog at Simply Alex Jean. I blog about chronic illness, essential oils, lifestyle, organization and Pinterest strategies and ideas!
Thanks again for reading this useful post. I hope that Alex inspired you to think about baking practice. Check out her blog for so many brilliant articles.
This week has been incredibly hectic for lots of us. Work is always busiest in winter and everyone is bustling around, absolutely exhausted by the time Friday comes. Regardless of this, Greta Thunberg still does her weekly climate protests and keeps alive the hope for a future not tarnished by global warming.
Before you put your feet up for the weekend, have a think about how important climate change is and just how much it will impact on your future. On my own doorstep, the flat Fens are at risk of being submerged under water again in the next decade. Further afield, ice sheets are continuing to melt, causing destruction of ecosystems and extinctions.
Having mentioned these things, perhaps we can make subtle changes now to quickly make our lifestyles more ecofriendly.
1) Share car journeys
Some of us don’t live close enough to work to be able to walk there but perhaps we can car share on the journey to and from the office. When taking children to clubs and events, picking up their friends too can reduce the number of vehicles on the road.
I have taken to walking to town whenever I want shopping now. Although it adds fifteen minutes to that journey, I find I enjoy the stroll and feel better about making one less car trip. Be prepared to have to walk whilst carrying the bags though. You way feel like a sit down on the way home. Or it may prevent you from instinct buying.
There will be ways in which all of us can reduce our car journeys or at very least make them shared experiences.
2) Turn the heating down
My heating used to be set at 21 degrees but now I have switched it back to 19 degrees. This saves energy and cuts back my power bill. It also means that occasionally I feel the need to put on an extra layer or sit beneath a throw whilst watching television or not being mobile.
Ensuring your house has appropriate insulation will also help with keeping your home warm and reducing energy usage. Carpets and curtains also make a difference by holding in the warm air.
3) Boil less
When boiling water in the kettle, only put as much water in as you are likely to need. This sounds silly but makes a difference and the idea applies to espresso machines too.
If you are making a quick cuppa for yourself then don’t boil a full kettle. You will then not need to use as much energy and the kettle will boil more quickly, which means a win-win situation for you as the thirsty tea drinker.
I know that these suggestions are fairly obvious but they follow some basic principles which incorporate a more ecofriendly approach to daily tasks. We need governments to make big changes to reduce pollution but these manageable changes will help to make a difference if we all consider them. For a previous post about the environment, please click here.
