bhurley’s Recent Comments

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  Don't freeze the cheese!

  I always make a few quarts of pesto in autumn and freeze it, but I leave out the cheese, adding that after thawing out the quantity of pesto I need. Parmesan and Pecorino lose something in the freezing process, and their flavor goes way downhill after a few months in the freezer.On When the basil plants get out of control, reach for the mortar and pestle posted 1 year, 2 months ago 4 Responses

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  Great advice

  This list pretty much mirrors everything I did during my nearly 30 years of living in apartments. I had a collection of compact fluorescents, low-flow showerhead, faucet aerator, etc., and each time I moved into a new apartment I spent a few hours installing them all and putting the old incandescents, shower head, etc. into a box so they'd be easy to replace again when I moved. Landlords can be picky and set restrictions on what you can and cannot install, but one of my landlords allowed me to install electronic setback thermostats, whch saved lots of energy over the five years I lived in that place.

  For laundry, I hung my wash outside except during winter or in the few places where the landlord forbid it; in those cases I used indoor drying racks, which worked fine for everything except flannel sheets. I lived for 30 years without a dryer, no problem. I do have one now because the only place we can fit drying racks in our house is the basement, and it's too damp down there for clothes to dry; even with a dehumidifier running it can take a week for clothes to dry out.On Umbra on being an energy-efficient renter posted 1 year, 2 months ago 15 Responses

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  Voice of experience on bioplastic bags

  I used bioplastic bags in my compost bin and I'm here to tell you that, while it's true they will compost, it takes a long, long time compared with regular plant materials. Like a year, at least. They're the one thing that hasn't completed composted in my otherwise "finished" compost from last year. They're certainly decomposing, but if you want to just toss bioplastic bags filled with kitchen scraps into your compost heap you should be prepared for a long wait.On How to start composting posted 1 year, 3 months ago 7 Responses

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  Urban composting

  After 10 years in rural Vermont where composting was second nature, I moved to a city. It turns out that my city (Montreal) subsidizes the cost of plastic compost bins, so we picked up one last year. I was amazed at how efficient those bins are at turning kitchen scraps into compost -- the scraps we put in there about two weeks ago are already close to being finished compost, and we ended up getting a second bin to allow a full batch to finish while we add material to the other bin. Between recycling and composting our weekly trash for two people consists of one or two kitchen size garbage bags.

  The biggest challenge at the beginning was finding some soil or finished compost to get the process going. Bagged topsoil or compost tends to be fairly sterile, most of the microbes don't survive, and we had to dig some soil from a local park (shhhhh!) to get things really going. But once the composting process starts you can use your own finished compost to get the next batch going.On How to start composting posted 1 year, 3 months ago 7 Responses

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  Crystallized concerns

  I use the crystal for traveling (because it passes through airport security: no liquid, no gel), and at home I use Kiss My Face's roll-on product derived from the same crystal, dubbed "Liquid Rock." I've been using the Liquid Rock for more than 10 years, as I've found it to be by far the most effective "green" deodorant on the market, but I do wonder about the effects of long-term use. I have been developing a lot of moles in my underarms over the past few years, including one that's odd enough to make me want to schedule a visit to a dermatologist to make sure it's not something worse. It's entirely possible that these moles would have developed on their own (correlation isn't necessarily causation), but it does give me pause. Just because something's "all natural" doesn't mean it's good for you, and as far as I know none of these products have been tested in laboratory studies so we don't know anything about their potential long-term toxicity.On Making a stink about green(ish) deodorants posted 1 year, 3 months ago 36 Responses