My wife wouldn't kill me, because I would never go to these extremes. But this story is inspiring, nonetheless.
Mr. Beavan and Isabella have been hewing closely, most particularly in a dietary way, to a 19th-century life. Mr. Beavan has a single-edge razor he has learned to use (it was a gift from his father). He has also learned to cook quite tastily from a limited regional menu — right now that means lots of apples and root vegetables, stored in the unplugged freezer — hashing out compromises. Spices are out but salt is exempt, Mr. Beavan said, because homemade bread “is awful without salt; salt stops the yeast action.” Mr. Beavan is baking his own, with wheat grown locally and a sour dough “mother” fermenting stinkily in his cupboard. He is also finding good sources at the nearby Union Square Greenmarket (like Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, which sells milk in reusable glass bottles). The 250-mile rule, by the way, reflects the longest distance a farmer can drive in and out of the city in one day, Mr. Beavan said.This reminds me of other experiments I've read about: a woman in Arkansas who was able to reduce the trash for one whole year to an amount that didn't even fill a single garbage bag; the man who cataloged and weighed his family's waste for a year, and was shocked to fully grasp the extent of their, um, wastefulness.
I've been thinking for a long time now about what I can do to consume less and lighten my footprint. This site will serve as a diary for my personal journey, which begins today.
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