Maria Brumm has a Master's degree... in Earth Science! She lives in Seattle, WA, where she works in environmental consulting.
One of my New Year's blogolutions was to clear out my to-blog folder, and bring closure to my unfinished drafts by simply posting them as-is. This is one of those drafts. Disorganized paragraphs, unfinished sentences, and general incoherence enhance the natural character and beauty of a half-written blog post and should not be considered flaws or defects.
Draft date: October 22, 2008
I don't know what it is about Dinosaur Comics that inspires me to be a contrarian, but when I saw this, I immediately wanted to prove T-rex wrong.
- Wear Gloves - Last night we gave in and ran the heater for the first time this season, because my hands were too cold to type. Tonight I've got fingerless gloves on; they're sort of helping.
- DON'T punch down bread dough - Commercially-made bread is actually one of the most energy-efficient processed foodstuffs there is. According to this study, unless you have a super-efficient gas oven that you load with several loaves at once, baking your own bread will consume as much as 8 times as much energy as a similar commercial loaf. One exception: If your bread travels more than ___ miles between the bakery and the grocery store, the climate will be better off if you bake your own.
- DO try punching the following: "Off" switches, broken items that you would otherwise throw out that might be restored to usable condition with a quick jab to the dented or sticky part,
Environment
Comments
But... but... Homemade bread is so goooood. Isn't that worth screwing the environment just a little bit for?
Posted by: Barry Leiba | January 8, 2009 9:52 AM
Yes, keep em coming! I'm getting out my gloves now. I want to use my fists so I don't end up like T-rex: without any.
Posted by: Silver Fox | January 8, 2009 10:36 AM
Just bake your home made bread in the winter, when you were going to heat your house anyway. I know, an electric oven isn't as efficient a heater as your gas furnace, but I live in an apartment which is heated electrically, so there isn't an efficiency issue. Definitely DO NOT bake anything in the summer when your AC is on. If you absolutely have to, take your oven outside and do it there.
Posted by: BAllanJ | January 8, 2009 1:56 PM
There is sort of an efficiency issue, depending on the layout of your kitchen - my oven is right next to my refrigerator, the baseboard heaters are not. But yeah, there have definitely been nights where it's cold, but not quite cold enough to turn the heat on, and I decide what I want for dinner based on how much time it will spend in the oven...
Summer baking is when it's time to start playing with solar cookers!
Posted by: Maria Brumm | January 8, 2009 5:55 PM
There's a lot more to making your own bread than energy efficiency. For example, trying to reduce your dependency on the global food monopoly or eating organic and/or local. The cheapest way to eat local/organic is to buy organic/local flour and bake your own. It's tasty too. I would be interested in estimates for how much running your oven to bake bread costs. I don't bake when it's hot outside and unfortunately my apartment has that crazy electric heat in the ceiling.
Posted by: Breena | January 12, 2009 12:50 AM
But I live in Pork Smith, where the bread SUX and we have no bagels except Wal-Mart bagels! I HAVE to bake at home.
Posted by: delagar | January 12, 2009 12:21 PM