 Last weekend, I spent that scorching Saturday - when most sensible people were lounging in the sunshine - at the Barbican’s Eco Aware event, in London. Mind you, I can’t complain. I was there to promote my book, How Green Are My Wellies. It's not officially out until 16th June, but if you can’t wait to reserve a copy, you can pre-order here.
Right, where was I, before I started my self-publicity? Oh yes, last weekend’s Eco Aware event. Of all the stalls pushing biodegradable crockery and organic vegetables, the one that stole the show was offering punters the chance to make up their own Morsbag, a material alternative to a plastic bag. You could choose your fabric, mostly scraps from old duvets, curtains or old clothes, and then be shown how - with a little sewing machine guidance - you could turn it into a bag. The results are far prettier than they sound - as you can see from the picture above.
The Morsbag concept – named after its founder Claire Morsman - is about using leftover fabric to make something useful and green. Morsman set up a group, mostly friends, that met weekly on her barge in Hanwell, in West London, to run up dozens of bags. Then they gave them out for free outside supermarkets. It's a bit like other forms of green guerrilla activism, such as guerilla gardening.
To make your own bag, visit the Morsbag website. There’s a PDF guide here to help you and even an animated demonstration. Even better, set up what Morsman calls a ‘pod’. A group of people, or sewing group, that meets to make Morsbags for their community. Or check here to see if there's already one in your area.
 Plenty of people have spoken out against plastic bags, but few have sung about it. Until now. Here the children at Godwin Primary School, in East London, make their point, musically, inspired by We Are What We Do's Change the World for a Fiver book.
To celebrate Marks & Spencers new policy of charging for plastic bags, they have been asked to perform in an M&S store. Click here to listen.
 At last, it’s arrived. A little later than normal, after a rainy few months, but for the next six to eight weeks, the shops will be full of British asparagus.
Eat it any earlier than this and the chances are it will either have been flown in from Peru or have been grown in energy-gobbling heated polytunnels. Whether or not this bothers you, remember that asparagus grown in the cool British climate has a unique flavour that is well worth waiting for.
The question is: now that it’s here, what are we going to do with it? Boiled for five minutes and wiped in butter is a much loved method, but it is by no means the only one. Here are some ideas – please feel free to add your own.
Grilled, as a topping for toasted sourdough bread. First, spread a generous layer of cream cheese or goat’s cheese on the toasted bread, then the cooked asparagus, followed by a drizzle of olive oil. This was inspired by a Lindsey Bareham recipe
In a risotto with other green seasonal vegetables such as broad beans, peas and spinach. Purists might prefer this recipe for simple asparagus risotto
For a twist on the traditional route, make up a lemony buttery sauce. Melt a lump of butter with the juice and grated zest of a lemon. Add some chopped chives or other herbs if you wish, and serve in a little jug with steamed asparagus spears. This recipe includes a dash of Tabasco
Anyone growing their own veg may well have some radishes and maybe even some broad beans ready to harvest by now. Here’s a recipe that combines them with asparagus in a seasonal salad.
For a deeper flavour, smear your spears with olive oil, season and roast in a hot oven for 15 minutes. Top with thin slices of parmesan while they’re still hot to make up a winning starter.
For a controversial twist to a traditional vegetable, here is a Heather Mills’ recipe for a vegan-tastic asparagus and pasta dish
Asparagus is also a tasty addition to a BBQ. Brush with olive oil and put on the grill for a couple of minutes each side. Here’s a recipe for barbecued spears with rocket, goats cheese and a lemony dressing.
Is there any time of day when asparagus isn’t welcome? Not according to this Ready Steady Cook chef who recommends that you enjoy an asparagus breakfast, topped with a fried egg. See here for recipe.
For an easy, wholesome lunch, try this miso soup recipe from Times chef Jill Dupleix.
The perfect place for the tough ends (which many people like to chop off) is in a stock or soup. Try this cream of asparagus soup.
Cooking tip: to steam, simply stand a tied up bunch of asparagus in three inches of boiling water, cover and cook for 3 to 6 minutes. For more tips, go to the British Asparagus website
 1/ It’s an aphrodisiac. During Roman times, when it grew in Mediterranean regions, it was considered the perfect ingredient to give your sex life a boost.
2/ You don’t need a garden. A window box, or even something smaller, like the plastic packaging container that you get strawberries in, will do. Throw some stones or old wine corks in the bottom and add some compost.
3/ It doesn’t need much attention. You sprinkle seeds on wet compost, then sprinkle some more compost over the top. Water again, and you’re off. Once well established you can abandon it for weeks on end and it will manage fine. For more detailed instructions, see this guide in Gardener’s World.
4/ You don’t need to worry about soil type. Rocket grows well in most soils, so you can avoid all the effort of pH testing kits and working out whether you’re dealing with a clay or sandy patch.
5/ It grows like a weed. And it self seeds so if you plant it in your garden, you’ll find patches of it cropping up all over the place.
6/ You won’t be bound by a rigorous watering schedule. Only when the seedlings first appear, you should water every day or so, unless it rains. Later on, rocket won't need excessive watering; it is used to Mediterranean climes. Although in the height of summer, watering helps to stop it running to seed (this is when seed or flower heads form, so the plant no longer concentrates on producing leaves - it has reached the end of its growing life)
7/ It’s good for you. Especially if you minimize the time between picking it and eating it, which is easy if it’s growing metres from your kitchen. Fresh rocket leaves contain iron and vitamin C.
8/ You don’t have to be limited to salads. You can cook it, treating it the same as spinach.
9/ It’s hardy and keeps on growing all winter. Especially wild rocket, which is tougher than salad rocket. Mine is taking over a patch in my front garden, where I sowed some seeds, over a year ago.
10/ Slugs and snails don’t seem to like it. Not as much as other salad crops anyway. To anyone who has witnessed the destruction of tender seedlings or suffered the loss of their favourite plant, this is a big attraction.
11/ It doesn’t need space. It’s not fussy about being crowded in a bed like asparagus, or likely to take up too much room like courgette plants.
12/ Bagged rocket from the supermarket is a rip-off. Say you bought a £2 bag of rocket once a week from May until September, that would cost you £46. One packet of organic rocket seeds costs £1.49.
13/ You can make your own pesto. Either in a food blender, or do what I do and bash up some pine kernals, then add garlic, salt and roughly chopped rocket and grind it in a large pestle and mortar, or in a mixing bowl with a rolling pin. Add olive oil and lots of grated parmesan. It’ll keep for a few weeks, sealed in a jam jar in the fridge. For a more accurate recipe, see here.
14/ It makes you feel green fingered. Sticking with something that is easy to grow does wonders for your gardening self-esteem. A thriving bed of greens promises of success with future venture.
15/ It’ll impress friends. When you come in from the garden with a handful of freshly plucked leaves, they will gasp at your green and earthy ways, even if you only have enough to sprinkle on top of a salad made mainly from supermarket iceberg. With its peppery flavour, a little goes a long way.
16/ You can sow almost anytime. From early spring to late autumn, with the exception perhaps of the height of summer when it might run to seed
17/ It goes brilliantly with salami. Or, if you're posh about your pig products, prosciutto.
18/ It grows quickly. None of this wait-two-years-before-you-eat-it-palava that you have with rhubarb and raspberry canes.
19/ Seeds are easy to find in garden centres. Unlike obscure varieties of rainbow chard, most garden centres, however small, will stock a packet or two of rocket seeds.
20/ The more you eat the more it seems to grow. This is because most types of rocket are ‘cut and come again’
21/ If your rocket is attacked by a pest, the leaves won’t be inedible. The holes you might see in the leaves are caused by a tiny pest called the flea beetle, so called because it leaps like a flea when disturbed. There is no problem with eating the leaves, although you may wish to wash them first to remove any traces of flea.
22/ If you still want to cheat... you can order in young plants from Rocket Gardens, see here.
 Today Sarah Vine writes about the peculiar pleasures of the new Lakeland catalogue, with its insulated butter dishes and Thermos snack jars.
It is, she says, the promises of order that fascinates the working mum, “the fantasy of perfection.”
I must admit to have been oddly compelled by it myself. The other night, I took it to bed - the magazine, that is. A guilty pleasure that prompted considerable mocking from my boyfriend. I doubt he would have been any more scornful if it was a bundle of porn on my bedside table. Anyway, as I browsed and yawned, there were moments when I convinced myself that here were some genuinely eco-friendly solutions. Tupperware boxes of every imaginable size and easy-seal freezer bags to make leftovers easy.
In the morning, I saw sense. You don’t need to buy special Tupperware boxes; they accumulate on their own. Friends leave them behind and takeaway containers become them, as do yoghurt pots and deli pots and a host of plastic packaging that you get for free from the shops. It’s the same story with freezer bags. The ones you use for fruit and veg in the supermarket do the job just as well. I’d rather use what I already have in my home than bring more stuff into the equation. It's not just cheaper and greener to be inventive, it's more fun. It's satisfying.
Few of Lakeland's plastic wares are genuinely vital to the running of a home. What I've noticed is that it offers solutions to problems we didn’t even realize we had. Take its mini icepacks for example. Remember, says the catalogue: "Packed lunches in an office drawer...can become a health risk." Since when has your cheese and pickle sarnie being warmed to room temperature bothered you? What about the mini salt and pepper mills for picnics. Good idea, until you realize that up until now, you’ve been perfectly happy with a tiny silver foil wrap containing a grind of each. Then there’s the ice crusher for "sunny day smoothies". Convenient, yes, but a good bash up between a rolling pin and a tea-towel containing ice works just as well.
And there’s something else. Make domestic life problem-free and doesn’t it ruin the fun? With hands-free wine glass holders and little coloured clips for each glass, so no one knocks any wine over and everyone knows whose glass is whose, picnics might become a little dull.
 When I posted about my disappointment with Alastair Darling’s plans for a plastic bag tax, all sorts of responses came in arguing that this was an excuse to introduce a tax; that plastic bags should be celebrated for their lightweight durability and that they are a necessary part of modern life. I’m afraid I don’t agree.
It’s easy to recycle them
That’s rubbish. Rarely collected by local authority kerbside collections (tell me if yours does, I’d love to know what it does with them), your best chance is to find a supermarket with a recycling bank for bags. But this is far from ideal. The UK lacks its own developed plastic recycling facilities so, like most of Europe, sends the majority of its plastics to China to be recycled over there, an arrangement which lead to a BBC Real Story scandal two years ago. It uncovered our plastic being piled into Chinese landfill rather than being recycled. The problem with the plastic used in bags is that it is low quality: cheap to make from new, but tricky and energy intensive to recycle. Look at most plastic items and you’ll see a triangle containing a number; the higher that number the harder the product is to recycle. PET, numbered one, is the best sort for recycling. Decent carrier bags are numbered four. The more lightweight variety can be as high as seven. For more info on these codes, see here.
They only take up a tiny proportion of landfill
Taking up landfill space has never been one of the main accusations levelled at plastic bags. That they are made from a non-renewable resource, yes. That each of us in the UK uses an average of 290 of them every year, definitely. Not to mention the impact they are having on the natural world - see here. But taking up landfill space is only a small concern. In fact, it is worrying itself that only an estimated third of the bags we use end up in landfill when we are getting through so many - 145 billion last time I looked here. Where are they if they’re not in landfill? As they can’t all be in your special plastic bag holder. Many seem to find their way to the sea. There has been debate recently about the extent to which plastic bags cause marine deaths. The plastic industry points out that many of the numbers quoted are based on estimates with little scientific support. What has clearly emerged from this debate is that plastic bags are only one kind of plastic that threatens animals, and probably not the worst. Damage done by solid lumps of plastic is even more serious. Reports suggest that many birds can die because they ingest enough small lumps of plastic that their stomachs are filled with nothing else and they starve to death.
They don’t take long to breakdown
The fact is that no one knows precisely how long a plastic bag takes to disappear without digging one up every decade to see how it’s getting on. Few scientists have given a figure of less than 100 years; most estimate between 200 and 1,000 years, depending on whether the bag finds itself buried in a light and air deprived landfill site or up a tree, where sunlight will help to break it down. A few weeks ago, the Association of Plastic Manufacturers at the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, claimed that:
"They decompose within one and a half to two years because of ultraviolet
sunlight." I would love to know where that figure came from.
They require less energy to manufacture than paper bags
In part this is true, but paper bags are not the only alternative to plastic bags, and while they require more energy, they also come from a renewable resource. Paper bags made from fibres from sustainably managed forests, or even better, recycled paper are environmentally superior to an oil based product. It takes 430,000 gallons of oil to produce 100 million plastic bags, according to Worldwatch Institute. In short, paper may consume more resources to produce, but it is more recyclable than plastic, breaks down more easily and does not come from oil, a resource that we should be decreasing our reliance upon.
They are durable and reusable
True, it has been claimed by the plastic industry that a bag can be used 15 times to carry shopping before it falls apart. This is the theory, but how many of us do this? They have become a one-use disposable item because we know the shop will hand out more for free, next time we go. The ten billion bags handed out to British shoppers are used for an average of 12 minutes before they are discarded. A material bag that you paid for is more likely to accompany you to the shops countless times. In the wake of I’m Not a Plastic Bag fever, scores of bags have followed, made from every imaginable material – from jute, hemp and bamboo to corn starch, string, recycled paper and even banana leaves.
Yes, there is an energy cost in the production of these, but the idea is that this is negated if you use them enough times. And of course, the habit of using something time and time again - whether this is a bag, a cloth in the kitchen or an item of clothing - is simply good environmental practice.
 1/ The daddy of reuse websites is Freecycle, a free version of eBay where you can pass on unwanted items and giggle at the curious possessions of others. In the past year, I’ve managed to rid myself of a broken Hoover, a load of old flowerpots, some fairy lights and a dozen heavy patio slabs that were taking up a corner of the garden. Easy. I hardly had to move from the sofa. The best thing is the collector comes to you, so you can sit tight and wait for your unwanted gear to be carried out.
2/ As a personal favourite, I reckon the ‘put it on the pavement’ method also deserves a mention. It works like this. You leave unwanted belongings outside your house with a sign saying “Please take me”. Obviously if no one does, you have to haul them inside and think again, but I’m always surprised what goes.
3/ Gumtree is a huge online noticeboard which started in Australia and now has sites in more than 40 cities across the UK and Ireland - find your nearest here. With a section devoted to free stuff, you can advertise your unwanted clutter.
4/ Another Freecycle wannabe, VSkips is free and works by offering each member a virtual skip to put their unwanted belongings into. Once uploaded other members can search skips in their area. Find your local group here.
5/ It still counts as free-giving, but with swap shops, you get something back. SwapZ is a good place to start with its 75, 000 members and 50,000 listings.
6/ Another thriving swap shops is iswap - particularly popular for consumer electronics, video games and mobile phones. There was even a Blackberry going when I looked this morning. Members place an advert for the item that they want to exchange and then wait for other members to suggest what they would swap for it.
7/ Here is another swap shop, which has been going since 2006. It operates a point system, where you swap for points rather than an actual item, then you use your points to get your mits on whatever item you’d like. Although it's free to sign up and swap, you can also buy extra points.
8/ For anyone who lives in North East London or Essex, it’s worth trying Give or Take, which will advertise unwanted items and try to find them future uses. It grew out of the successful Forest Recycling Project.
9/ To donate furniture to people in need, visit the Furniture Reuse Network and contact your local branch here. If you’ve got stuff it wants, it’ll collect from your door.
10/ A music, film and games exchange website, called Swap And Play, allows you to pass on stuff you’re bored of, while getting fresh material from people in your area.
 Yes, that’s the good humoured, tolerant brand of self sufficiency promoted by Andy and Dave Hamilton on their website and now in their book.
I spent an afternoon with the twins at their home in Bristol last week and learnt about the most brutal slug-slaying method known to man and why everyone can make a few lifestyle tweaks to become more self sufficientish. The interview will be in Body&Soul this Saturday. In the meantime, here are the boys with their top tips on becoming self-sufficientish (clicking here should take you to a video), and below are some benefits of their lifestyle you might not have thought about.
1/ Being self-sufficientish is generous spirited. There isn’t enough land in Britain for everyone to become properly, pig-in-the-yard self-sufficient, a la John Seymour, the father of self sufficiency. So, adopting a few measures, such as growing your greens or making your own dandelion cough syrup, is a more sustainable way of letting a greater number of people have a go.
2/ You’ll save a lot of money, at a time when rising fuel and food prices are causes for concern. Andy reveals that his total earnings a few years ago were £5,000. On this, he lived and ate very well. Thanks in part to his commitment to Freecycle, skip-diving (never passing a skip without having a poke around), growing his own food, mending things rather than chucking them, cycling and walking rather than driving and buying clothes in charity shops.
3/ Your brain works better away from a desk. Andy and Dave’s idea of a work meeting is to head to the woods and pick some wild garlic. “It helps you to think, much better than speaking over the phone,” they say. I quite agree, sometimes I have to move to think. I’ll sit at my desk and stagnate for hours, then trot off to make a cup of tea, and bingo, I’ve got it.
4/ It’s an affordable way of eating delicious, organic vegetables. That is, if you’re not keen on coughing up a fiver for a bag of carrots and a cabbage at a farmers market. This is was why Dave started growing vegetables as a student. He persuaded his landlord to let him cultivate the garden. (And yes, they are delicious: Dave gave me a bagful of purple sprouting broccoli from his allotment. For the past few evenings, I’ve been steaming it – both florets and stalks – and eating it with a wedge of butter and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. It is truly a gourmet vegetable and I'm planning to plant some myself this weekend.)
5/ You don’t have to move to the countryside. Dave and Andy say the self sufficientish lifestyle is well suited to towns. There’s great urban foraging potential (here’s a thread about foraging in parks); more desirable stuff in skips; good public transport and you can still go to the cinema and find pubs full of different kinds of people.
6/ You end up absurdly healthy. Just take a look at Dave’s budget food section. Yes, it’s cheap. Yes, the recipes are simple to make. Ok, so it is a bit studenty. But just imagine how healthy you’d be on a diet of dahl, broth and cous cous.
7/ It promotes a happy lifestyle. “Just spending ten minutes in the garden or making your own soup for supper will make you feel better than half an hour in front of an X-box,” says Andy, and I believe him.
8/ You’ll be at the forefront of a trend. You might think that your moth eaten cardigans and second hand clothes are an embarrassment to your children/husband/friends but actually – and you can tell them this – they are part of a new fashion trend called chic-eco (pronounced chico). Or so says Dave and Andy (but it could be a Bristol thing).
9/ It doesn’t matter if you’re not perfect. Don’t think that there’s no point trying to be green because you’ve blown it by owning a car or flying on holiday. Everyone has weak points. Andy feels bad about taking taxis and he confesses to eating meat, which has a heavy carbon footprint. Dave still smokes, even after writing this handy guide to quitting, and he feels especially bad about it because tobacco is a heavily sprayed crop with a bad record for exploiting workers.
10/ You can wow your friends with nettle haggis dinner parties. It tastes nicer than it sounds, apparently.
 Never before have so many multinational confectionary retailers harked on about cardboard content, plastic packaging and recycling potential. It’s good news I suppose, but I’m not fully on board.
Yes, it’s a step in the right direction that Mars is reducing the amount of plastic in its Easter eggs and is committed to using recycled cardboard - a measure that it estimates will save 12,000 trees - but it has only reduced the thickness of its plastic inserts by 10 per cent. Let's not get too excited. Looking at the press release and the company’s new eco logo, see bottom of post, you would think it had found a way of avoiding the use of plastic altogether.
Then there’s Cadbury’s unboxed eco-egg, a foil-wrapped hollowed out egg. But has anyone seen one? Please tell me you have, because all I can find is the usual rows of plastic and cardboard encased eggs, each one marketing a different chocolate bar.*
Meanwhile Sainsbury’s promises that all its “boxed Easter eggs have reusable, recyclable or home compostable packaging.” I’m wondering how to reuse the plastic insert, or is it supposed to be recyclable? And surely that depends on your council - some accept only PET plastic bottles. I'm also wondering if I'm being a party pooper, about as welcome as a fox at a gathering of Easter bunnies...
I still think that buying little eggs, such as these Fairtrade ones from Divine or these from Green&Blacks, is best. Then you can have all sorts of fun filling china egg cups with them or hunting down alternative ways of packaging them. An empty egg box is perfect or an old yoghurt pot or olive pot, decorated with ribbon or wrapping paper.
If that sounds too much like hard work, go for a Booja Booja chocolate egg (a collection of them is shown in the picture above). It’s shell is a thing of beauty as well as being reusable. It is a handpainted gift box made by artists in Kashmir. The chocolate inside is organic, vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free, so it’s good for you too. Sort of.
* UPDATE: I take it back. I've found them. Very sweet looking too, but still outnumbered by the normal eggs in my local Waitrose.
 With politicians, it’s never easy, is it? They never come out with it, pure and simple. There are always clauses, exceptions, and promises to reassess in a few months. With plastic bags, what I wanted was direct action, right now. For too long we have pussy-footed around our plastic bag problem. We should be joining Ireland - where there has been a charge on plastic bags since 2002.
For here is a rare thing: a green policy that the majority of people agree with. Unlike the rise in the price of fuel or taxing gas guzzlers, a charge on plastic bags is universally supported and anticipated. So, while I salute our Chancellor for promising at least something, his pledge to charge retailers from the start of next year is disappointing. I can’t help feeling that he could have been bolder.
Because, you see, there’s a sub-clause. What many people will choose to ignore is the bit after Darling’s promise. That the charge will begin next year only if the Government “has not seen sufficient progress on a voluntary basis to cut the amount of single-use carrier bags.” So it is dependent on another Government decision, another load of paper work, more talking about it, rather than doing it.
I’ve read enough press releases from supermarkets broadcasting news of their latest plastic bag initiative to make me glaze over whenever I see one. They talk plans to change things in the future; they conduct trials in a handful of stores, but not one of them has taken the difficult route and announced a charge.
That Darling’s budget has a light green hue, I will not deny. I’m impressed by his measures to combat gas-guzzlers and his £26 million commitment to the Green Homes Service to advise consumers on how to reduce domestic carbon emissions, waste and water consumption. This is why in my Body&Soul column this week, he is up for the weekly eco-angel award - unlike Boris Johnson who is a strong contender for eco-sinner, given his opposition to the £25 congestion charge for cars in high CO2 emission bands. But I regret his caution on plastic bags. Had he been bolder, it would have won him cosiderable support. Not least from the eco worriers of this world.
A bit like with cooking, reading how to do something crafty can be off-putting as it’s difficult to imagine yourself doing it. But as this video shows, it’s easy if you watch someone else doing it. Which is why this is a jolly useful guide to darning a sock that should encourage all of us to stop binning our socks just because our big toe peeps out and whip out the darning mushroom instead. The video, made by ethical textile retailer Green Fibres, has already been viewed over 5,000 times. Good to know that granny chic is alive and well.
For me, darning a sock is fun because it’s an excuse to sit on the sofa and watch bad TV, plus you get to feel virtuous and fifties house wife - or husband - ish, and I'd never consider doing it without making myself a hot chocolate first, for sustenance.
According to Green Fibres: “Most socks are made from conventional cotton, which is the world's most polluting crop, and that nearly a quarter of all insecticides – mainly damaging organo-phosphates – produced globally each year are poured and sprayed over cotton plants. The damage to the environment and to poor cotton farmers around the world is massive. A World Health Organisation report estimates that up to 40,000 farmers die from pesticide poisoning each year.”
You will need:
A darning mushroom (you can buy one here or you could improvise with a plastic bottle or a lightbulb – this’ll make sense when you watch the video)
Some darning thread
A large needle
A sock with a hole in it
Eco-cheat: still not ready to take up needle and thread? You can buy organic socks, certified by the Soil Association from Green Fibres and Natural Collection
 Call me a sandal-wearing hippie, I don’t care. You can even call me a Guardian reader and I won’t take offence. The fact is that homemade muesli rocks. And I’m super fussy about breakfast cereals. Too much sugar in some; others are strangely salty, and I don’t like large lumps of fruit that go soggy in the milk.
Having discussed this at length in the office, it is clear that everyone has a different muesli criteria, as well as a different way of saying the word. The best option is undoubtedly to make your own. This way you can save money - the most expensive packet of muesli I can find is Rude Health’s Ultimate Muesli (£5.95 for 500g) - and guarantee that your morning bowl is just the way you like it.
Instructions:
1/ First you need to invest in a container. An air-tight dispenser like this one from Lakeland or this one from John Lewis is perfect for the job.
2/ Some people like to toast their oats first. This involves spreading them out on a baking tray and grilling them until you can smell something delicious. Or you could roast them in the oven for 20 minutes.* It sounds like a faff, but it’s worth it. They become firmer so you end up with a less soggy final product. *You could easily toast your oats in a cooling oven to save turning it on especially for this purpose.
3/ Larger oats make better muesli. I like these jumbo organic oats because they taste delicious.
4/ Consider spicing up your dry mix. As well as plain rolled oats, you could add barley flakes, oatmeal or oatbran to your dry mix.
5/ The mixing process. Once you’ve got your oats in a large mixing bowl, add chopped fruit, nuts, seeds and anything else you fancy eating for breakfast. Mix thoroughly. Proportions depend on taste. I use roughly three cups of oats to one cup of mixed nuts, seeds and fruits.
6/ Here are some content ideas: raisins, chopped apricots, chopped dates, dried banana, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, chopped walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, flaked almonds, desiccated coconut and cashews. Variety is crucial.
7/ If you prefer to follow an exact recipe. I like this one from Anthony Worrall Thompson, although you wouldn’t necessarily have to soak the mixture in apple juice as he suggests.
8/ Cheat with the seeds. To avoid a complex process of mixing, which invariably ends up with hemp seeds scattered over the kitchen floor, I buy a ready mixed packet like this one from Holland & Barrett.
9/ No need to add sugar - especially if you’ve used some dried fruit. And by not adding it, you have the perfect excuse to drizzle maple syrup, honey or a sprinkle of brown sugar on your bowl.
10/ Pour it into your air-tight container and wait until breakfast. As well as eating with milk, you could soak it in apple juice the night before and add a dollop of yoghurt at the last minute.
As if further evidence were needed of the benefits of making your own, Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation has included a homemade muesli recipe as part of its health information.
 Here's another cheeky t-shirt from organic clothing label Tonic. Whatever you might think about Bruce Forsyth, you can’t deny that his 80th year (celebrated on 22nd Feb) deserves commemoration. If we can do this in ethical fashion, all the better.
This isn’t Tonic’s only take on cultural icons. There's Eastender’s Dot Cotton here and don't overlook The Hoff.
Since my family is always moaning about the disadvantages of scoffing too much chocolate over Easter, I'm planning to buck the trend and offer each of them an Easter t-shirt.
Here are a few more trendy and ethical t-shirts.
Among others in its latest catalogue, check out Howies' Tap Water is Cool slogan t-shirt. Find it here
Magic Bean is new to the eco t-shirt scene, but I love it's More Trees Less Bush t-shirt, made from bamboo, the sustainable material of the moment.
And how could I ignore the doyenne of slogan t-shirts? Click here to see Katherine Hamnett's range of t-shirts for men. And here for women's - not forgetting her vest dresses with uncompromising messages such as Clean Up or Die.
I’m away on holiday this week, so sorry if blog postings dry up a little, but here is an inspiring video with a great soundtrack. Thank you Musings from a Stonehead for the link
 So that you don’t think I’ve forgotten about Fairtrade Fortnight - from 25th February until 9th March...
RICE
Crazy Jack organic rice, buy from Tesco or Waitrose And Sainsbury’s own brand Basmati rice and Basmati brown rice is Fairtrade
QUINOA
Look for Granovita quinea, available in Sainbury’s
MANGO CHUTNEY
Geo Organics mango chutney is available from Tesco’s and Sainbury's.
(click below for more)
Continue reading "Ten Fairtrade products you didn't know existed" »
 By now, we all know the score: filling our green bins is only half the story. Creating a demand for the contents is as important, which is why we should buy recycled products. But what exactly is on offer?
Here are some original ideas to get the ball rolling.
Woven handle bamboo bag
Made of recycled juice packs by a women’s cooperative in the Philippines, I love Doy bags.
Games picnic table
Bit chilly still, but here is a colourful bench that is made from 2000 plastic bottles.
Drinking glasses
Made from Corona beer bottles, cobalt-blue mineral water bottles and Coca-Cola bottles, snazzy drinking glasses from Ecooutlet.
Recycled chain bottle openers
Made from recycled bicycle chain, find them here – like the company name, Rebycle, too.
Jimi wallets
A range of wallets, including leather ones, made from recycled designer belts.
Ipod cover
Designed to protect your Ipod from scratches, these colourful covers are made from recycled plastic.
Handmade lampshades
Made from 100 recycled card and sourced in the UK. Find them here.
Table mat
Made from recycled bottle tops and made in Africa, each mat is unique.
The Nokia Remade
The first handset to be made entirely of recycled waste materials, including rubber tyres, as reported on the Mousetrap Technology blog.
Marmot EcoPro sleeping bag
A four season sleeping bag, made out of used plastic bottles and old fabric, soon to be launched by Cotswold Outdoor. In the meantime, they have a rucksack, called Osprey React, made out of 70 per cent recycled materials.
 The second in my new weekly slot (the first is here). Please feel free to add your own suggestions and let me know which items you are struggling to dispose in a suitably green fashion.
So here are some ideas about what to do with unwanted books...
The Charity Route
So long as you have a decent number of books that are in good shape, there are likely to be book charities that will collect them from you. Especially if you’re London-based or in the South of England. Try Amnesty International for its chain of second-hand bookshops (call 020 7033 1688 to arrange collection).
Another charity that will pick up is Education Aid. It sends books and other materials to countries in the developing world, but the books need to be less than ten years old.
Book Swapping
Join a book-swapping forum, such as ReadItSwapIt. You submit the books you want to get rid of, which gives you access to its online library. When you've found something you like you are given the owner's e-mail so that you can offer your own titles. When you're both content with your choices, you post each other the books.
Given them as gifts
A friend recently wrote to me to tell me that she had found the perfect way of slimming her book collection. For her mother’s birthday, she picked out a selection of novels that she thought she would enjoy and tied them up in ribbon and tissue paper. Since Mothers Day is coming up (2nd March), this strikes me as the perfect green gift. Thank you Mari.
Don’t recycle them
The one thing you cannot do with books is to recycle them in the normal way. The glue that binds them messes up the paper recycling process. Stay away from the green bin.
 Recently, a PR got in touch with me to tell me about this eco-friendly shopping bag called the LittleBigBag. I would like someone to test it and report back on how well it works.
It is a funny concept that takes a little time to get used to. You pile your belongings into both front and back sections – it’s important that they balance out – and then you are hands free. It’s new to the British market. It’s inventor lives in Aix-en-France and is currently selling the bags around Europe on a very small-scale. But the company is hoping to expand and sell the bags in supermarkets in the UK.
If you’re interested in being a guinea pig, email me or leave a comment below and I’ll post one out. I only have two bags (obviously you can keep them afterwards). First come, first serve.
 Welcome to a new and regular slot on the Eco-Worrier blog. Each week, I will post up ideas of how to deal with unwanted belongings in a green and ethically clean manner.
What I’d like from you is two fold. Firstly, subject ideas. Don’t know what to do with an old shower curtain? Got a load of video tapes lurking that need a new home? Tell me about it. Email me (my email is on the right) or leave me a comment on this blog and I’ll do my best to feature your idea in this slot. The other thing I’d like to hear is your suggestions for what to do with the items being discussed. Let us in on your secret decluttering solutions. I’m hoping the section will become a useful stash of green ideas to help people cope with their clutter.
So, shoes….
Are they fine quality and in good nick? In which case, go to the My Shoes campaign, which raises money for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust. It collects designer shoes to sell on eBay (donations need not be Jimmy Choos, but it helps if they are something that people would be prepared to pay for).
Offer them to your friends. You could organize a clothes swap at someone’s house. Everyone should bring a few pieces of unwanted clothing and, erm, you swap. Helps if everyone brings wine and nibbles too. And you can suggest a small amount as an entrance fee to go to charity. If you live in London there's an official swap happenning on 21st February, see here.
Give them to a reputable charity shop. I am less inclined to use textile banks – most of the contents will end up sent abroad to be sold in developing countries (see here) – and I certainly wouldn’t trust those leaflets that float through the front door, for the following reasons.
If you’ve got any running shoes, you can donate them to Nike’s Reuse-A-Shoe program. It will accept shoes of any brand. Find out where your closest collection point is here.
Find your nearest shoe recycling centre. Do this by clicking here, then type shoes into the search engine and then type in your postcode to find your nearest recycling facilities.
Since spring is coming, boots could be inventively reused as flower pots. Try winter pansies, cyclamen or geraniums, or maybe some rocket (you’ll need a greenhouse or sunny window sill to germinate salad seeds at this time of year). Also, don’t forget to make drainage holes in the bottom of the boots.
 If you haven’t already, it is time to hassle your boss. What you want is the day off on February 29th - to take part in the Green Leap Day initiative.
Launched by the National Trust, the idea is that employees get to roam free; in return, they are supposed to “green” their lifestyles and think about their carbon footprint.
Here are some ideas to help you fulfill your part of the bargain.
Let me know if you have any plans for the Green Leap Day and I’ll print a selection in next week’s Eco Worrier column, in Body&Soul.
Go for a bike ride. To find a cycle route in your local area, click here. But first, give your bike an MOT – blow up the tyres, oil the chain, give it a clean and check the breaks.
Order a couple of energy-saving light bulbs at Light Bulbs Direct
Make a soup. A thick, nourishing soup, such as this slow-roasted root vegetable soup – a Delia recipe that I’ve tried before. Make lots of it, then it will serve as several meals (minimal work; minimal energy) and you can freeze some in a Tupperware for emergency meals.
Do a shop for green household products. By that I mean, recycled loo paper; green cleaning products (I like Method and Ecover); rechargeable batteries and other boring necessities.
Cancel junk mail. Register with the Mail Preference Service here.
Sprout some seeds. A genius way of growing a superfood stuffed full of health-giving enzymes. You need neither a garden nor a windowsill, just a tiny patch of worktop in the kitchen; a jam jar and an old pair of (clean) tights. Soak a handful of dry beans (lentils, chickpeas, alfalfa…) overnight in tepid water in the jam jar and fix a patch of tights material over the jar with an elastic band. In the morning, drain the water and leave the seeds to germinate, rinsing them twice daily to prevent them going mouldy. It should take about three days
Darn some socks. It’s tempting to hurl holey pairs in the bin and buy another packet of five for a tenner from M&S. But it’s strangely satisfying to mend the holes and keep wearing the same pair. The trick is to do it sooner rather than later - when the holes get too big to mend. So sort through your sock drawer; find some threadbare volunteers and settle down in front of a film. To learn the basics of darning, see here.
See if your local BTCV group (British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) needs your help. Find your nearest BTCV office, by clicking on this map.
Register as an organ donor. Click here
Make a veg bed plan It’s a bit early to be sowing seeds, unless you have a greenhouse, but it is at this time of year, that it’s worth sitting down and working out what you would like to grow and where you will put it. Think about what you like eating; what is expensive in the shops; how much sunlight your garden gets; what kind of soil you have. Even if you only have a tiny patch or room for a few containers, the earlier you start planning the better. I have found this RHS website and this veg-growing blog to be invaluable
.
Anna Shepard writes the Eco-Worrier
column in Body & Soul. Do you have a green dilemma? E-mail it to Anna Shepard, or use the 'comments' link at the end of the posts (left). Please tell us what you think of the Q&As and send your own advice and eco-solutions. We'd love to hear from you.
- For older posts, take a look at the blog Archive.
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Last weekend, I spent that scorching Saturday - when most sensible people were lounging in the sunshine - at the Barbican’s Eco Aware event, in London. Mind you, I can’t complain. I was there to promote my book, How Green Are My Wellies. It's not officially out until 16th June, but if you can’t wait to reserve a copy, you can pre-order here.
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