Wormery update

Checked on my worms yesterday and what a difference.  No fruit flies at all.  I do know that the cooling weather probably helped with this but still I think adding a little soil helped a lot too.  I don’t know if its my imagination but the last lot of stuff that I put in seems to have composted so much quicker too.  Worms are all over the place – more than I’ve ever seen.  I am so proud.

Anyone any advice as to whether I should cover them when we start to get hard frosts.  Presumably they should be quite warm as there is plenty of compost in there now.  What should I cover them with?  I think I have some bubble wrap somewhere.

Using my CurrentCost from e.on

Got my CurrentCost energy monitor last week.   This was a freebie when I changed to e.on’s energy saver package.  I think a lot of energy companies are offering similar deals.  And I think its mainly the CurrentCost that they are offering, just with a quick rebrand.

So, it arrived.  It was installed easily and working in no time.  The most interesting thing is obviously the current electricity use.  This seems to be incredibly accurate.  For instance, we worked out that our fridge had a 20W light bulb because when you open the fridge the electricity consumption goes up by 20W.  It shows up some scary things – like underfloor heating, ouch! and our oven is pretty bad too.  We had a new kitchen installed last year with halogen spotlights and this is about 800W when they’re all on.  It definitely makes us turn off the lights when we leave the room!

So surprising things are the amount of energy lights use, even the normal ones.  Also surprising is the energy used by electrical gadgets such as computers and TVs.  This is actually pretty low.  And I’ve always been told that leaving chargers switched on for mobile phones and lap-tops when not in use used electricity and it DOESN’T.  It seems to show that the advice you get for how to save electricity by getting obsessive about things on standby etc won’t really save much energy at all.  My top advice for using as little energy as possible – eat cold food by the light of the telly!

Finally, I am also interested in how to use the CurrentCost with the tryingtobegreen.com energy tracking website.  It would be of great advantage as it would stop you having to keep looking at your electricity meter (normally in such an unaccessible spot like under the stairs or in a cupboard outside).  At first glance I couldn’t find much that corresponded to anything we could use and the CurrentCost is generally about reporting usage right now rather than cumulatively.  However, it does tell you your total use over the last week and month and I think this could be used within tryingtobegreen.com.   I wonder whether other energy monitors have a similar feature.

Ratatouille

Cheap and easy. very tasty. I made this because we found a large aubergine lurking at the back of the greenhouse!

Ingredients

• 1 large aubergine
• 2 courgettes
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 1 red pepper
• 1 tin tomatoes
• some chopped fresh basil if you have it

Preparation

Wash and slice the aubergines and courgettes into 1cm slices. Quarter the aubergine slices. Put the aubergines and courgettes into a colander over a bowl. Add about a tablespoon salt and place a plate on the top plus something to weigh it down. Leave for about an hour and you should get some brown bitter juice coming out of the bottom. Wash in cold water before cooking.

In a saucepan, heat some olive oil and gently fry the onion and garlic for about 5 mins. Add some chopped pepper and the aubergine and courgettes. Add basil and some salt and pepper. Put the lid on and turn the heat to low and cook for 20 mins. Add the chopped tomatoes and heat gently for 10-15 mins. Tastes even better if left to cool and then reheated!

Wormery problems

We don’t have any pets.  This is probably a very good idea because we’ve had trouble keeping our worms alive and are already on our second batch, after only owning the wormery for a year.

My latest problem with the wormery has been fruit flies.  Thousands and thousands of them swarming out when you take the lid off – yuck.  I didn’t dare go back for 2 whole weeks. I have however found a really good website called:  www.wormcity.co.uk which has given me hope.  The problem was that we have one of those layered wormeries which makes compost in each layer and the worms should travel up through it.  I filled the second layer and started on the third.  But the 2nd layer started to go down as it decomposed and the worms couldn’t reach the top layer.  So after taking advice from wormcity I bravely emptied the top layer into the next layer down and then covered it with soil (the fruit flies breed on the exposed food apparently).  I am now less scared of going near the wormery and the bottom layer actually looks like compost now.

Maybe i could be trusted with a goldfish soon!

Brilliant energy saving lights

Been looking for some lights and came across this site:

http://www.directlight.co.uk/energy_saving_lighting

There’s a really big collection of every sort of light.  I’m really impressed.

Make and Do for grown-ups

This is so cool.

http://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/how-to-make

Design a product (either using a basic design program or by taking a photo of a pencil and paper design). Upload your design. Choose your materials. And then have it made.

http://www.ponoko.com/make-and-sell/materials

Free electricity meter

With my latest (still huge) bill last week my electricity supplier (e.on) offered an energy saver deal which fixed my electricity costs until 2010 and gave me a free electricity meter.  I’m not actually that impressed by the deal.  I know that I should have signed up to one of these 6 months ago if I wanted to get cheaper prices but hey ho I was just being optimistic.  But what really clinched it for me was the free meter.

Now I wanted this because i can use it to test with www.tryingtobegreen.com but I wonder how many people now are getting these free meters.  It means that a lot more people out there are taking an interest in their energy use.  I think that most of them, like me, resented spending £40+ on a gadgety thing.  Well making a sweeping generalisation I’d say that men like gadgets but are not so interested in tracking their electricity and saving money and women might be trying to cut costs but would seem stupid to waste £40 on a gadget like that.  So I wonder if we’ll see a lot more of them in use now.  They do seem to be taking hold and most people I speak to have heard of them and a couple have bought them.

Mine has yet to arrive, so I must be patient.

Tangy chutney

I hate the waste we get in the garden at this time of year so I thought I’d attempt some preserving. I’ve never done it before so only time will tell whether it will keep. Need to leave it for at least 2 weeks before getting the full flavour so will report back. Original idea from a River Cottage book.

Ingredients

• 2 onions
• 3 courgettes
• 6 tomatoes
• 2 cooking apples
• 2 big handfuls raisins or sultanas
• 300g sugar
• 500ml white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 2 tsp salt
• thumb-sized piece of ginger
• 10-12 cloves
• 10-12 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• a few blades mace

Preparation

All quantities are approximate so feel free to change depending on what you’ve got.

Peel onions, courgettes and apples – no need to peel tomatoes. All fruit/veg needs to be pretty finely chopped. I used the magimix.

Place in a big heavy bottomed saucepan with the raisins.

Add the vinegar (+a bit of water), chilli flakes, salt and sugar. Start heating and bringing to the boil slowly.

Make a spice bag from a scrap of muslin or cotton and put in all the spices. Tie tightly with non-colour string(!). Push into the centre of the chutney.

You need to simmer the chutney for up to 3 hours. It needs to look rich and brown and quite thick when done.

Turn off and leave to cool for 10 mins while you prepare the jam jars. You need plastic coated screw top lids (because of the vinegar). Wash the jars and lids thoroughly in hot water. Or in the top shelf of the dishwasher.

Place jars and lids in a baking tray and heat for 10 mins in oven at 140′c.

While jars are still hot put chutney into a pouring jug and pour into each jar – as close as you dare to the top. Put lids on as tight as possible and tighten again when totally cold.

Needs to mature for at least 2 weeks before serving.

A useful energy gadget?

Been looking at this today: the energenie

Its a new gadget to help you automatically turn things onto standby. Now we’ve already got a Bye Bye Standby and its unused. It has a remote control that kept getting lost and one day when we couldn’t find it we just unplugged the whole thing in frustration. It was a very un-user-friendly piece of kit and was quite expensive too. So I’m a bit wary of new things. This one seems better although am not going to buy one just yet as I’m trying to steer clear of all eco-gadgets.

Firstly it has no remote control. And does not require thinking about. You plug in your appliance (TV, computer etc) and when you switch it into standby in the normal way, it then automatically turns it off after a couple of minutes. Sounds quite cunning and not too badly priced at £12.99. Still not going to buy one though.

No more cycling…or booze….or coffee

Cycling must have been my shortest lived green intention ever.  I think I managed it for barely 2 weeks before finding out I was pregnant.  I know lots of people do cycle when pregnant but I just don’t like the risk.  I reckon I’d fall off at least once a year so I think the likelihood of falling off while pregnant is quite high (especially in the wobbly later stages).  So my bike is back in the shed and is likely to languish there for at least another year and a half.