Water Conservation - Washing the Veggies

I'm going to start a weird topic for my area this week....Water Conservation.
This June has been one of the wettest I can remember. I don't think we've had more than 1 or 2 days where we didn't get at least 1 shower, and most days were completely grey and rainy.
Gardens are waterlogged, Lake Hopatcong is actually full...when on Memorial Day there were many lamenting how empty it still was from the winter lowering.

So, before June, we were in a drought.

And, summer drought has become common in our area in the last 10 years, I've heard announcements about lakes and reservoirs being at record lows frequently. And the building boom of the late 1990s and 2000's has not helped.

I have posted on my garden site about wanting a rain-water capturing system that we just haven't been able to afford yet, so that I don't have to feel nervous about watering our garden from our well. Nor have we been able to find a source for clean used barrels...

We've never had a problem with our well, and as far as I know, no one around us has either.
It's just that when you think about the dryness around, lakes lower, less rainfall in the highlands, etc it makes you take note, so I'm going to blog about conserving water, even after a month with 10+ inches of rain.

We get most of our produce from the biodynamic Community Supported Garden (CSG) at Genesis Farm.
Some of it comes home pretty dirty, and for years I was washing it all under running water.
For the past year or two, though, I've been trying to do as much as I can with less water.
I start by putting the veggies in a big bowl or use the salad spinner and letting it fill half way, scrubbing the veggies using the water from the bowl; setting aside each scrubbed veggie until the dirt is off and I have a bowl of brown muddy water.

Then I use that water to water plants, and get the benefit of all that biodynamic soil, rather than letting it run down the drain along with gallons and gallons of water....
After getting rid of the "mud", I give the veggies a final rinse, now free of most of their dirt, it only takes a slow stream of running water, again captured in the bowl...and use that for the plants too.

There have been times when I've been "too busy" to do it this way, but when I don't capture the wash water and let it run even a little, I feel guilty.

Water is a precious resource.

True North

Wow! Another post from FoodShed Planet really hit home today.
Finding True North really spoke to me.
Sustainability - Eco-conciousness - there have been so few for so long trying to bring awareness to the myriad issues of what we are doing to the environment & our food supply and what it is doing to ourselves. But it seems that the tide has finally turned.
People who, not 5 years ago would never have been heard talking about "local" or "organic" or even thinking twice about eating another meal from a cardboard box have modified their lives at least a little.

Some use canvas shopping bags - or better yet - homemade bags.
Some hang laundry.
Some mow with a reel mower and muscle power.
Some join CSA's.
Some buy local.
Some drive smaller cars.
Some turn off lights/appliances.
Some use fans instead of air conditioning.

But it is out there in the collective concience now.
Blessed BE!!!

Inspiration - Add 2 More

Inspiration comes from many places......
Nature, reading, music, my boys...
Lately a lot of my inspiration has come from bloggers.
My daily favorites being:
FoodShed Planet, Wisdom of the Moon, and Farmgirl Fare.
There are others as well, but I find these three to be a great daily dose of inspiration.

And a couple of nights ago I had a dream which seemed so real that I tried to google the idea that it spoke of.

Pattie of FoodShed Plant, and I have had some dialog about things we have committed to doing being hard, or getting difficult. And it's true. Sustainability and living in an eco-concious way can seem difficult and in fact can be difficult in the certain contexts.

In my dream my idea was to get people "on board" by getting them to Add 2.
Just Add 2 things to your lives that will make a difference.
If you are already doing things to be more sustainable and they have become habit, a part of your life...stretch yourself to Add 2 more. If you haven't started yet, pick 2 things that are doable for you.
You could try re-using your plastic grocery bags/ double them up so they don't tear so quickly and instead of dropping them in the recycle bin on the way into the store, (I know you recycle them :) ) use them again...and again...and again.
Or when you wash your produce you could wash it into a basin or bowl to catch the wash water and re-use the water to water your indoor or outdoor container plants.
Or anything that fits closely with your lifestyle. The idea is to just start somewhere...and then to keep it going.

My current challenge is to find a way to reduce my fuel use. That's one of the Add 2 that I want to focus on next. I need to find people to car-pool with and make a concerted effort to do that. I do already trip-chain and try to shop weekly or bi-weekly instead of daily...but I need to find driving buddys to take it one step farther.

What will your Add 2 be??