Reusable Stuff: When Washing is Actually the Lazy Option

QE's lunch supplies

Yes, it is easier in general to throw something out rather than deal with washing it.  There are disposable items that will never lose their place in my household: garbage bags, for example.  While I love my bamboo kitchen cloths, I do not see us ever making the switch to "un-paper towels."  And I might be using the occasional cloth diaper wipe right now (can't be bothered to acquire a full set), we will categorically never be  a "family cloth" kind of family.

Sometimes it seems like frum people are obsessed with using as many disposable items around the house as possible: why do you think Amazing Savings is so popular?  But my family is definitely not one and done on everything.

Things My Toddler/Husband Eat: "Obalars"

I know you think your kid is stubborn, but most of you haven't met QE. If that kid doesn't want something, she won't eat it, no matter how many times she's liked it before. In fact, she will convince you that there's pumpkin in the chicken soup, even when she helped make it and knows darn well that there ain't no pumpkin in that there bowl. But if pumpkin is her kryptonite for the day...

On the other hand, BSB is happy to eat pretty much anything I stick in front of him, and has been good about my homemade experiments. He gamely switched to letting me make the bread, and adjusted to my meat-is-usually-too-much-trouble-during-the-week attitude. When I suggested replacing his daily Nature Valley bar with a homemade granola bar, he agreed - as long as I could maintain the supply and not put too much fruit in them.

I discovered Playgroup Granola Bars a while ago, and thanks to QE's adorable baby mispronunciation, my whole extended family now refers to them as "obalars." I fiddled with the original recipe to make it a bit healthier, and then fiddled with it some more when I realized just how versatile it is.

Are frum people less crunchy?

In my opening post I mentioned a few scenarios that frum crunchy folks may have experienced, times when you felt like your crunchy tendencies removed you from the chevra. I kind of dislike talking about cloth diapering because it gets annoying to have to justify it to people who think I'm either insane or just gross. Have you ever actually been sneered at for being the weird hippie? Do people ever act as if caring about the environment makes you more "modern" or less frum? And why is that?

For an awful lot of the Orthodox population, these issues are just not on the radar. People have a lot of kids and their husbands work 3 jobs/learn at night/think dishes are women's work, so they use paper plates ALL the time. If the local kosher supermarket sells anything organic or grassfed or otherwise eco-friendly it's it's way expensive compared to the regular cutlets in the next case. Healthy snacks and lunches are a no-go because people think their kids only want to eat what the other kids are eating.

Eat All the Veg! About CSA...

I'm pretty gung-ho about the CSA thing, since last year was such a big success for my family. It's getting to be the end of the sign-up period in a lot of places, since most start in May, so if you're on the fence about getting a CSA share, read on.

Why am I writing this on a Friday when Shabbos is pretty much unmade? I'm a masochist, clearly. Rega, must run and put pita dough in the bread machine.

For the untutored, getting a CSA share means that you pay a farm a chunk of money to give you a box of food every week. Depending on the place, the amount and variety of fruit and veg can vary, as can the price and whether or not the contents are organic.

Mine comes from Alstede Farms in Chester, NJ, and it's pretty fabulous. They started a payment plan this year so I wouldn't have to pay the whole price up front, and I got an early bird special for signing up in December too. You can see last year's weekly share lists online, which gives you an idea of what to expect over the course of the season. It goes from May to November, which means for half of the year, my Shabbos menus are half-planned for me.

But where did the crunchy come from?

The salesperson at a natural baby gear store once told me that babywearing is like a gateway drug into cloth diapering. I think that's the case with a lot of element of the crunchy lifestyle: trying one thing leads you into considering another.

I grew up with an occasional garden, my father baked bread as a hobby, and we always used a real (unprotected!) tablecloth and proper dishes on Shabbos. I also used my former cloth diapers as doll blankets. But I never really got interested in making specific attempts to live naturally until I was married and running my own home.

I think I did this the wrong way around...

I started a Facebook group on a total whim, and now figured I might as well blog it too.

For a lot of frum people, the elements of living an eco-friendly, natural, etc. lifestyle can seem overwhelming or just irrelevant. When you've got a big family and keep kosher, buying organic and pasture-raised food seems prohibitively expensive. The people around you might be concerned with buying the perfect stroller, but buying the perfect baby carrier is not on the radar. You might gawk at people buying 8 days' worth of disposable utensils so that they don't have to wash dishes on Pesach, but you're the only one at Amazing Savings who thinks it's odd.