Canada Moms Blog

Cheesed

Like most people who read blogs, I have a sizable blogroll. Certain themes have trended in through time - I had a lot of baby blogs when my daughter was a little, and when I went to work at the local hospital, blogs written by doctors, nurses and paramedics stacked up in number.

There are always blogs to follow about almost any profession, hobby, craft, whim. Even things you never thought you'd be interested in. But we're eating at home a LOT more these days, and in between the 100 mile diet and trying to show my children that with a little ingenuity, we can do almost anything, I've found myself reading all sorts of new and incredible stuff - and then trying it out.

For example, I adore cheese. Even the stinky stuff most people won't touch. Did you know you can make a lot of cheeses in your kitchen? Seriously. Like ricotta. Known around here as the glurp-glunch-YUMMY lasagna cheese. Or paneer, an incredibly basic but delicious Indian cheese that squeaks between your teeth if fried lightly in ghee. Even semi-hard and hard cheeses can be made at home.

the foreigner in the 'fridge

I was reading an article about saving money on groceries, idly thinking 'Well, I do that', and 'Holy crap do Canadians get fleeced on coupons' - because really, Canucks, you do - and 'I'm amazed my slow cooker isn't worn out yet' and clicked away, disgruntled.

Some of the suggestions are pretty basic, after all.

My family is trying to be as local as we can be. We're kind of proud of it, actually...haunting the local farm markets for produce and goods, doing our best to buy locally. We're even experimenting with putting in (well, experimenting again) a garden.

Some things we fudge on, like coffee (I'm fine with that, I am, because mornings are not fun when I don't get my coffee) and no one seems to be distilling gasoline nearby, but we make choices like early apples over the-peaches-from-the-United-States, and ketchup made in the Maritimes.

Birth Rates Drop Due to Recession

When news of the recession loomed and job loss started to rear its ugly head people began to take precautionary measures by means of halting procreation. Research has shown the sharpest decline of births at the start of this most recent economic recession while home prices and gas prices were at their highest. Many young couples have apparently postponed starting a family due to economic pressures whilst others have taken far more drastic measures. {source}

"For the first time in American history, [the] birthrate has dropped to roughly replacement level - or the number of births needed to maintain a stable population." {source} (this information is based on the latest available comprehensive analysis from 2006).

There is also evidence of higher instances of abortion and vasectomies as people fear the worst and take measures to protect their livelihoods.

But to what extent would you go to ensure that you're family is recession proof?

To save the world, albeit a little sneakily

My local grocery store recently went bagless. That is to say, they will let you use your own bags (their re-useable fabric bags prominently displayed at all the check outs - only 99 cents!) or you can purchase plastic bags (biodegradeable, huge, thick things) at five cents apiece.

And even though the chain is projecting this significant move will result in a 55 per cent decrease in the number of plastic shopping bags it distributes and help to eliminate one billion plastic shopping bags from landfills in 2009 - which I'm all for, save the earth, rah rah rah -  I can't help feeling a little....well....duped.

I've no problem with the cloth bags. Even remembering to drag them out of the back of the car isn't as hard as it used to be - the 'oh, damnit!' moment seems to be coming in the middle of the parking lot now, instead of when I'm inside the store, so yes, that's a success. The cloth bags are sturdier, more-packable (okay, I made that word up, but you know what I mean) and don't tip. They're loverly.

The problem comes when I get up to the cashier and discover I'm a carrier bag short of carrying everything outside.