| Growing our own food | | | | ourselves, shortly before eating it, is also healthier. |
| It may seem difficult to achieve much indoors, | | | | A well-designed food preparation worktop is the |
| but there are some opportunities which are more | | | | heart of a good kitchen. |
| appropriate inside because of the difference in | | | | Making, repairing and maintaining |
| temperature, especially in winter. Sprouts grown | | | | Looking after our possessions prolongs their life |
| from seeds and pulses, for instance, can be | | | | and reduces the need for replacements. Suitable |
| grown almost anywhere that is warm, and these | | | | work spaces and kits for the repair of clothes, |
| do not even require light. We can also grow herbs | | | | furniture, toys and appliances etc. greatly |
| on window sills. Mushrooms can be grown in | | | | facilitates these activities. Good maintenance |
| complete darkness in a cellar or outhouse, and | | | | habits are all ecological and should be given the |
| yoghurt and similar cultures can be seen as a way | | | | necessary priority. |
| of growing fresh food. If you have a | | | | Recycling |
| conservatory, you may choose to grow plants | | | | There is almost nothing that cannot be recycled. |
| and vegetables that cannot be grown outside. | | | | However it is an important principle that these |
| Storing food | | | | materials need to be separately categorised. This |
| Storing food to provide for the winter is not as | | | | requires space for a storage system of drawers, |
| necessary as it was in the past. However we | | | | cupboards or containers. An ecological household |
| should ensure that any produce we do grow is | | | | will put as much energy into the proper disposal |
| kept in the best condition possible. Apples from an | | | | of goods and materials as it does into procuring |
| apple tree or potatoes from an allotment require | | | | them in the first place. Even the recycling of |
| space allocated in the coolest location possible. | | | | water, heat and air is possible to some degree |
| Systems for ensuring that no food is kept longer | | | | and requires the allocation of space for the |
| than its recommended eat-by date are important. | | | | necessary equipment. |
| Processing our own food | | | | There are many more ways in which we can be |
| We are buying more processed food than ever | | | | self-sufficient: in education, entertainment and |
| at present. Often this means the centralisation of | | | | health, for instance. The important point is to give |
| production with all the inefficiencies of packaging | | | | priority to the activities which reduce our |
| and transport that result. Preparing food | | | | unecological levels of consumption. |