Upcycling and Recycling

"Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value." The term upcycling was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things .

Until I spoke with some women from San Francisco that were in the recycling business I had no idea that a word had been coined to explain this age old practice. Isn't that what quilts were traditionally made from, "post-consumer" clothing?

I have stepped into the special world of upcycling by creating shopping bags from our chicken feed bags! I have envisioned using these for close to a year and finally just said, oh what the heck, and made the darn thing.

I hate to say it, but I am so tickled with myself and so JAZZED over the final result, the bag, that now I am trying to figure out how many of these sacks I have stashed by the chicken coop! I think we have saved something like 30 of these bags. I will need to wash the ones that have been out in the rain and elements, oh...and find the time to sew them!

In the meantime I am trying to figure out where I can get hold of cheap black webbing for the straps. I would like to use 1 inch or 1 1/2 inch thin nylon webbing. I just bought the sample webbing at my local fabric store, but I would like to find it for cheaper than $1 a yard.

I need to time myself in making the bags to figure out what to charge for them. They are really basic: no pockets/buttons/cell phone holders. In other words, a bag! Thoughts?

I am still making my sustainable sacks. Currently they are for sale at The Cheese Shop in Healdsburg. Once the Farmer's Market on Thursday night in Windsor begins, I will be selling them there, too! I think there is a market for the both of them. Besides, I have way too much fabric that needs to be used!

Glorious Tomatoes

These are the very first tomatoes from our garden! The really ribbed ones are Florentine tomatoes and the really round one in the back is a Brown German. Farmer Jeff planted 250 tomatoes, all raised from seeds, which are comprised of 35 varieties.



We quickly went to work on these tomatoes and paired them with home grown Genovese and Opal basil, bufalo mozzarella (which can be found at our local store, the Cheese Shop) and then some lovely southern Italian olive oil which we carried home with us!














We have also been enjoying a record crop of stone fruit. We have already picked and preserved jars of exquisite Santa Rosa plum jam. I can't get over the color. It is as though we have captured a sunset in a jar. Did I mention the flavor? Farmer Chef Jeff summed in up best when he said, "this just tastes like summer". Boy howdy, is he right!

We are not the only ones that are thoroughly enjoying the summer produce. Our dogs and chickens LOVE whatever we are not eating. We are currently doing work on the house and in our yard, so we are keeping the dogs in a big dog pen. This has really worked out to our advantage because the dogs used to pick the ripening fruit right off the trees! We would be lucky to get any of the low lying fruit! While amusing, it is really annoying!

Nonetheless, I can't help but share some tomato bits with our beloved chocolate lab, Callebaut. He takes it so gently, looking like he is accepting a communion wafer. He is blissed!