Brummet's Conscious Blog

The  Recommended Resources  series has been published on this blog since we transferred it from the  Brummet's Muse  biweekly newsletter that ran for 6 years or so, many years ago. When we closed it down, we decided that we just had to continue this series here on this blog and have been doing so now for nearly 2 decades. With this series, Dave and I have the pleasure of sharing some great resources which can include  - positive impact organizations and events - citizen science projects  - helpful articles, amazing resources & exciting interviews We hope our readers will reach out to thank them for their work, find a way to network with them, share these sites with others or get involved in some way. ** Want to see a non-profit listed here? - Send us a  FaceBook   or  LinkedIn  message. Radiation Safety Institute of Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting radiation safety in the workplace, environment and communit...

With this  Recommended Resources  series I have the pleasure of sharing some great resources which can include  - positive impact organizations and events, citizen science projects and links to helpful articles. -- Central Okanagan Food Policy Council works toward food security and reducing poverty, hunger and food waste. www.OkanaganFood.com --- Wildlife Haven   (Ontario, Canada) helps save, rescue, rehabilitate wildlife - releasing them back into healthy habitats:  https://wildlifehaven.ca --- Noah's Wish rescuing and sheltering animals affected by disasters throughout the United States and Canada.   https://noahswish.info --- ~~~   Discover the Brummet's Books on Amazon :  https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0845RLK1X  Find Them Online via :  https://taplink.cc/brummet  https://linktr.ee/LillianBrummet ~~~

I just love this book trailer video that Dave Brummet created for our  Trash Talk - It's Easy To Be Green 2-book series. This series covers a lot of ground from explaining the recycling industry, sharing inspiring information, offering ways to reduce waste via reconsidering, rethinking, recycling, reducing, repurposing and other 'r's. Want to save money? Want to make a positive impact within your community? We'll show you how.... Get your copy today on Amazon .  https://youtu.be/LHrttxkdTaE ~~~   Discover the Brummet's Books on Amazon :  https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0845RLK1X  Find Them Online via :  https://taplink.cc/brummet  https://linktr.ee/LillianBrummet ~~~ 

Local Food Movement  “Launching this BC Centre for Agritech Innovation will improve productivity here in B.C., meaning more food will be grown closer to home, leading to lower costs associated with transporting food. Simply put, this centre makes us a global front-runner in agritech.” The quote above is taken from this really interesting article about the growing trend, and the need, of purchasing food from local producers or suppliers that stock locally grown produced goods. Our menu plan has a huge ecological impact, it can be a positive impact - however - if we choose to shop locally.  Imagine an item grown from far away has to get loaded on a truck and taken to storage, then loaded on a truck and driven 300 miles (or whatever the distance is) to another storage unit where it is repackaged and distributed to the various stores. Much of that fossil fuel cost is reduced simply by purchasing from locally produced goods.  The other aspect of this shopping habit is that you...

Media Appearance Hey everyone! Check out my recent interview over on the Chatting with Betsy - we discuss finding purpose through writing, we touch on our most recent book: From One Small Garden - Over 300 Hundred Delicious Nutritious Recipes ... but we also discuss  how making time as a couple is important, various aspects of grieving, mental health and why people  think about  suicide. We also discussed how important  it is to listen  to children  when they talk or show signs of anxiety or depression. Somehow we also found time to share h ow gardens help the environment and economy.  * Chatting with Betsy is free to subscribe to on your favorite podcast outlets.  Amazon Music, Spotify and Spreaker  are a few.  Listen to the interview now via : AudioAcrobat Audio  https:// passionateworldtalkradio.com/ make-time-to-spend-together- as-a-couple    ~~~ Discover Our Books on Amazon : https://amazon.com/author/lillianbrummet...

Reducing Food Waste    There is, understandably, food waste in any kitchen whether it is peelings and cutoffs or unused extras. Wasted food means wasted money and in the case of expired leftovers, a potential mess with odours. Either way, wasted food is unfavourable. Fruit and vegetable peels and seeds are packed with fibre and nutrients, so removing them from our diet is counterproductive. There are many dishes that require one to peel the fruit or vegetable to get a certain desired texture but in some cases you can avoid that. For instance, when making tomato sauce a quality immersion blender can liquefy skins and seeds, creating a smooth and thick wholesome sauce. When making jams and preserves where the fruit is to be peeled, consider using a blender to process the fruit into a smooth paste and save those wholesome nutrients. We have a steam-juicer for making wines, jellies or syrup and use that left over pulp to make fruit leather. Our dogs absolutely love blackberry and ...

Recommended Resources According to Waste Watch : " People around the world discard an estimated 80 billion pairs of chopsticks every year. ChopValue, a Canadian company, wants to give those wood utensils a second life as shelves, furniture and countertops ." Check out this inspiring video showing how this Canadian company obtains and repurposes old used chopsticks: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1183447928754606 -- Waste wood is everywhere... visit any construction site, any business that works with wood, or drop by the hardware supply store to see their bins of "junk" wood. There are so many ways to reuse this wood and even create jobs in your community. Locally we have quite a few crafters who lovingly shape junk wood into toys, ornaments, wall decor, furniture, garden decor, and much more. Here is a fun video showing one self-enterprising fellow taking waste wood and making beautiful furniture:  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1828929287278581 -- Watch this ...

Eco-Event International Compost Awareness Week May 3 - 9 2020 Theme : For the Love of the Earth; soil loves compost This is the largest and most intensive education initiative of the compost industry - it began in Canada in 1995 but now reaches around the planet, raising awareness about the benefits of all types of composting. Compost improves the nutrients available in soil, increases loam which is responsible for retaining moisture and reducing watering needs. Composting is a good tool for carbon sequestering and reduces the amount of organics filling up the landfills. When organics head to the landfill, they mix with all kinds of other materials and become dangerous because the liquids released (leachates) cause all kinds of water and land pollution issues. The gases released can explode and often result in landfill fires, endangering workers. With up to 30-60% organic material in the landfill, we could make that landfill last a lot longer by diverting that organ...

-- Thoughts On Food Waste --  Have you ever sat in a restaurant and wondered if your table sent so much un-eaten food back for disposal, just how much is being wasted at every table, every night? The answer – a lot. There’s a lot at the back where all the food processing is done as well. Bins of the stuff is being created every day at the back of every café, grocery store, deli, coffee shop, and restaurant (to name a few). If your area is rich in agriculture, you likely have some kind of processing or manufacturing or brewing companies in town. They too, create bins of the stuff. So what to do about all this waste? Well, you do know I’m a huge proponent of composting – and a lot of companies have created programs to compost their waste, or utilized existing ones in their communities. So that is starting to take root as part of our culture. Individuals too are taking up composting much more readily, and so they can take advantage of this (or commu...

    Let’s start with some food waste numbers… As a society we waste 40% of the food produced on average. Households are estimated to be responsible for about 15% of that. While food waste is a valuable resource, sadly 90% of US food waste is landfilled. …now remember that those numbers are an average over all the foods produced. Before food reaches us there is a whole lot of stuff that goes on. Think about the land used, soil consumed or depleted, water and energy (including fossil fuels to run tractors etc.) all just to get the product harvested. Upon harvesting up 20-70% of the crop is wasted. Yep wasted. Why? Because consumers are expecting a pepper to look just so and that requires certain standards that have to be met. OK so here the product is harvested and then it is shipped to a warehouse where it is sorted and packaged and sent to various distribution outlets or direct to large processors (like soup or jam or juice companies). At the...