As a person concerned about sustainable living, I gravitate toward used books. For environmental sustainability, I want to limit my consumption of resources. For my own economic sustainability, I need and want to spend less. And if I buy from a local, independent seller of used books, that’s good for the local economy, too.

On the other hand, I do agree that authors deserve to be compensated for their work. Will that cease to happen if I buy used books? No. Someone’s got to buy them new before I can buy them used, right? And many of the books that I buy used are books that I might not buy otherwise.

When I want something badly enough, and I can’t easily find it used, I do go ahead and buy a new book — especially if I’ve already read a library copy. For instance I heard about The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe, and first I checked it out of the library and read it. I quickly found that it was one of the best gardening books I had read, and that it was something I would refer to time and again, so I ordered a new copy with an Amazon gift card (I earn and save these up sometimes).

So if you can afford to support authors by buying new books, and feel good about doing so, I’d say go for it! But please don’t tell us that this is what everyone should do. It’s not the right thing for every person.

NOTE: Yes, I put an affiliate link in there for you. You can send a little cash my way if you buy through that link. You’ll also be supporting Powell’s Books AND the author. Or, go forth and find a used copy — it’s your choice, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

But what could take the place of our current economy? I saw this video (produced by the Center for a New American Dream) on the BikePortland website, which explains how we could adopt an economy of plenitude instead. In fact, some of the things mentioned are already taking place.

Yesterday, I served my family chicken burgers, and I had a Boca “chicken” burger. So that was easy.

I’m eating Weight Watchers Smart Ones meals for lunch, so I just picked meatless meals: Santa Fe rice and beans, pasta with veggie sauce, spinach lasagna.

I don’t normally eat meat with breakfast.

Tonight’s dinner was veggie chow mein. I used onions, carrots, broccoli slaw, a very small amount of fresh broccoli, zucchini and napa cabbage in it. No one even asked whether there was any meat in it, so I’m counting it as a success!

Also on this week’s menu: spinach ravioli with marinara sauce, bean burritos, scrambled eggs with potatoes and something yet to be determined that will be prepared and eaten while camping this weekend.

And thinking about all that? I’m not feeling deprived at all.

But that’s not entirely why I haven’t been posting much. It’s also because some of the things I normally write about have become mundane, ordinary parts of my life now. Riding my bike to work? This is my fourth year of doing it. And I’ve had my Xtracycle for over three years now.

I’m still cooking and canning and gardening, too. But it’s kind of old hat now.

I know there are more things I could do in the pursuit of sustainable living. I’m just not sure what to do next.

So I’m asking you: what do you want to know more about? Is there something about bicycling or canning that you would like to know about, or that you would like help with? Or, do you have an idea for a challenge? I’m willing to take on challenges within reason, if you’re willing to play along, too.

Let me know. Let’s do something.

In the meantime, I signed up a while ago for the 2011 EcoChallenge, and then didn’t get around to DOING anything about it. And then apparently they put me on a list of FEATURED BLOGGERS! Oops. So, I’m starting my EcoChallenge late. I’m still going to do the 15 days, starting today, and my challenge is to limit myself to eating meat no more than twice a week. This will take planning. Join me?

I know, yuck, right? I suppose there could be a relationship there. However, my first thought was that there must be more people using cloth diapers now! That doesn’t account for the diaper rash creams (although some people think cloth-diapered babies are more prone to diaper rash), but I bet it’s a factor. If you glance at the comments below the article, you’ll see several other people casting doubt on the article’s conclusion as well.

If you really want to save money, cloth diapers are an excellent option. Even if you have to pay for a coin laundry, you’ll probably be saving money over disposables, which cost around a quarter for each diaper.

Photo by simplyla on Flickr, used via CC BY 2.0 Attribution 2.0 Generic.

You can get exact recipes and instructions for making and preserving jam in lots of places. My favorite is PickYourOwn.org. I won’t be giving you the step-by-step here.

However, I did come up with a few tips:

Amounts: You need a half-flat, or six pints of berries to make one batch of jam, which will be eight half-pint jars or four pint jars. You really do want to stick to this quantity, both because it’s a manageable amount and because this helps the jam to set properly. Don’t try to double or triple the recipe! Just make another batch on a different day.

You can, if you wish, make smaller batches of jam without pectin. I’ve done this before — if you have just two pints of berries, you can still make two or three jars of jam! Marisa at Food in Jars is doing a series of posts on Urban Preserving, specifically for those who want to preserve in smaller amounts, and she’s got some great recipes so far.

Time: It took me less than two hours to process a half-flat of strawberries, including sterilizing, washing, hulling, cooking, filling jars, and boiling the finished jars. Some people can probably do it faster; I am not particularly fast. My point is that it will not take all day! I actually fit this batch in between getting a child packed for camp and going to a dinner party. I’ve also been known to run a batch through the canner in the evening after work and dinner.

Equipment: I have a 21.5-quart canner, because I do full batches of jars. If you’re only doing a few jars at a time, you could use a smaller pot, even one that you already have. You just need some kind of “rack” in the bottom, which could simply be a small towel, and you need enough room to have at least 1-2 inches of boiling water above your jars. You’ll also need a jar funnel, jar tongs, and a magnetic lid lifter. You can get these things in the canning section at the supermarket, or as a handy set from Ball.

To cook a full batch of jam, you will also need a four to six-quart pot. This may seem odd, because you’re only going to end up with two quarts of jam! But when I made jam in my three-quart pot, it overflowed every time it came to a full boil, and you have to bring it to a full boil.

Get a helper: In the time-honored tradition, I use my kids. Or, you know, I train them in life skills by letting them help! You could also try a spouse, partner or friend. I had a child cutting the tops off of the strawberries (we just slice with a knife, rather than trying to pull the hulls off) while I was getting jars and equipment ready. We finished them up together, and then I let another child mash them.

Multitask: I filled the canner and put it on to boil first, because that takes the longest. I washed a couple of pints of berries, got the kid started slicing, and then put my jars and rings in the dishwasher and started them sterilizing. Then I washed more berries, and we worked on slicing the tops off together. You don’t want to end up waiting for the pot to boil, or for the jars to be ready!

If you’re not ready to jump into canning, you might like to try freezer jam instead. It’s even easier, and you get a fresher berry taste because you don’t cook the berries. Either way — it’s berry season! Go take advantage of it!

Speaking of peas, I can definitely recommend the two varieties we planted this year: Oregon Sugar Pod II and Cascadia, both from Territorial Seed. Both are great for instant eating; sweet and juicy, not tough and stringy. These are far superior to the peas I’ve grown from seeds from the grocery store!

I also picked a few strawberries today; strawberries are late in the Pacific Northwest this year because we had a long, cool spring.

Potatoes, tomatoes, squash, broccoli and cabbages are continuing to thrive. I’ve also got some bean seedlings the kids planted that need to be transplanted ASAP.

Meanwhile, the CSA is keeping us supplied with a variety of lettuce and cooking greens, as well as radishes, turnips and more peas. In fact, we’re getting more greens than we can really eat in a week! I finally said to myself “So, what are you supposed to do when you have an overabundance of a certain crop? Preserve, of course, duh!”

You can can greens in a pressure canner, if you have one, but I don’t, and I’m not sure I’d want to anyway. I went with blanch and freeze, following directions from PickYourOwn.org. I do recommend using a salad spinner to drain and dry the greens after blanching. I also used re-usable plastic containers rather than plastic bags. Finally, if you do this, be aware that the greens will really shrink down after blanching and spinning! A whole bunch of greens (maybe half a pound?) yields about one cup for freezing.

So, come winter, we’ll still have some of our spring abundance available.

More troubling in the latest figures, consumer spending — the largest component of the economy — was especially slow. Stagnant wages and higher prices for gas and food are squeezing family budgets, while falling home equity hurts consumer confidence … When consumers are constrained, so is hiring, because without customers, employers are hard pressed to retain workers or make new hires.

In other words, our existing economy is dependent on people spending money, and not just on necessities. It’s also dependent on growth in that spending from year to year.

Does that seem reasonable? It seems to me that constant growth in spending would eventually result in severe resource depletion. And encouraging consumerism seems like an unhealthy basis for an economy.

I’ve written some ideas and suggestions before around designing a different way to live, and a different economy. But according to Gar Alperovitz in Yes! magazine, there are companies and organizations who are already moving in new directions. That’s good news indeed! And we’re seeing it on the local level where I live — churches, schools, and organizations are opening community gardens and community dinners. New food c0-0ps, food buying clubs and farmers markets have formed. People are working together for healthy local economies.

I hope more people will see that the solutions are there, even if they don’t come in the form of consumer spending.

This didn’t sound appealing. And the weather was good enough for biking, so biking was appealing, except that it would have been eight, long, uphill miles home.

Well, I really did want to bike, so I did it, and decided to try to hop onto MAX (light rail) with my bike to get home.

Of course, people do this all the time. The trains even have special hooks on them for bicycles. But my Xtracycle is significantly longer than a regular bike, and you’re really not supposed to take a bike on MAX unless it fits into the regular spaces.

I decided to chance it anyway. I’d heard of a couple of ways this could be done. One person said that you could fit an Xtracycle on the hook if you just turned the front wheel sideways (at a 90 degree angle to the bike). I’m still not sure how this would work. The other tip was that bikes ARE allowed in the spaces reserved for wheelchairs if the hooks are full.

I pulled up to the station and bought a ticket, hoping it wouldn’t be wasted. I let the first train go by, because it was too full, with both bikes and people. The second train was less than half full, but the bike hooks were occupied, so I went for it. I ran my bike onto the train, pulled the front wheel up, stood the bike on end, and wedged it into an empty wheelchair spot. It fit perfectly, without blocking any aisles or doors! I did have to stand there and hold onto it, but I did get it fairly securely wedged between the posts and railings.

Taking the Xtracycle on MAX still wouldn’t be my first choice, but now I know it’s doable.

After the events described in this post, BikePortland posted a short piece about bicycle trailers not being allowed on MAX, which sparked a lengthy discussion in the comments. I don’t use a trailer, and didn’t have a child with me, but I found the discussion interesting.

I picked the last answer. I don’t do anything for Earth Day. I try to make overall lifestyle changes instead. Hopefully some of the other people who picked that answer are doing the same! Lifestyle changes, even smaller ones, have a bigger impact than anything you do for just one day.

Now, the second poll:

This one made me sigh (and not just because of the missing word). Reducing, re-using and recycling are great, but I don’t think they have the biggest impact. These activities do happen to be relatively easy, so more people are willing to do them. Plus, we’ve promoted the heck out of those three words in the media and in the school system. Any kid can tell you about the 3 Rs.

My choice was minimizing oil dependency, as that’s a crisis we’re already beginning to face, at $4-5 per gallon for gasoline.  An oil shortage and/or high prices will affect more of our lives than one might think. Besides gasoline for cars, oil is used to grow, manufacture, and transport products we buy, eat, and/or use every day. So if the price of oil goes up drastically, so does the price of everything else. If there’s not enough oil for cars, there’s also not enough for farm tractors or for plastics manufacturing.

I have to admit, though, that I don’t have any hard data on which practices really have the most impact (and didn’t find any via Google search). It’s just my opinion. What do you think?

*referral link