NO LAUGHING MATTER

 A wood burning stove is perfect for a pot-roast.                                                                                                       Mans

Now that I hopefully have got your attention and the dust has settled, after my naked butt post, I would like to touch on something deadly serious and what it boils down to is SUSTAINABILITY.

The big kettle that goes into the  
Wonder Bag ready for the morning
dishes

So here I am, running around foraging, hosting get togethers, writing blogs, making videos and generally having a jolly hockey stix good time, but there is a deeper reason for it all.  I believe that a time will eventually come, when it will be possible for people living in cities to become sustainable in just about all respects, by that I mean with regards to food, energy, water and waste disposal. I don’t believe there is any other alternative, if we are to survive as a global society. I hope to encourage as many of  you as I can to think along these lines.

My mission, as ‘The Urban Hunter Gatherer’, is to try to work towards being as self-sustainable as possible, while living only a 20 minute walk from the very centre of Cape Town. I’m not flippant about my pledge and I don’t expect to make radical inroads into sustainable living, but if each year I’m more sustainable than the one before, then at least I’ll feel I’m moving in the right direction. For me it all starts with food. Why buy imported and unseasonal produce, why jam your massive fridges full with stuff when you end up throwing half of it away. Why not grow our own produce or at least some of it (you don’t need a big area, you know), why not start a compost heap or worm farm, why not reuse your jars, bottles, plastic containers and packets. Wot about a basic grey water system, and rainwater tanks to reduce your sewage output and to reduce your use of municipal water. Then there is cooking and heating with solar energy, using ‘a wonder bag’ and even using a wood burning stove that doubles up as a heater (as long as you use the right woods – I believe this is a sustainable approach). Most of the things I have mentioned, don’t require buckets of money, they are small little changes that most of us can do.

                                    

The Wonder Bag, awesome for rice, beens, slow-cook stews etc.      Me

Me mate Dave's solar cooker that he lent me. It's brilliant.               Mans

Yes, dealing with all this stuff is a little more time consuming than taking the consumer approach, but it's rather rewarding and in any case we all need to slow down, don't we?