Amy's story: Zero Waste with Celiac

Today is a guest post by Amy Sjoquist, who provides tips on combining waste-free and gluten-free living. Please use the comments to share your experience or ask questions on the subject. 

          Hi to everyone out there who is interested in stewarding our beautiful earth and living simply.

When I came across an interview that Bea gave about her Zero Waste home, I knew that I had just found truth and it required me to do the right thing. Immediately after reading the interview, I hopped on this website, and started the immersion into the Zero Waste lifestyle. But quickly encountered a stumbling block: I have Celiac disease.  How was I supposed to go all in when I have to buy bulk food and I can’t just get 10 baguettes to store in the freezer for the week?  Celiac disease is a very serious illness, and the risk of contamination from buying bulk food is enough to put some of us into a terrifying panic. But I found that I don’t have to renounce the zero waste lifestyle! The key to a gluten-free zero waste lifestyle boils down to taking a few precautionary measures and finding the perfect flour mix (my recipe tastes great and  is super cheap!)

Here are my zero waste tips for people with Celiac:

• Make sure your item of choice has been manufactured gluten-free and that its bulk bin is placed far away from a gluten-related product (this may mean going to several stores, which is annoying, but eventually you’ll figure out the good ones) 
• Ask the store about possible contamination when refilling the bulk bins
• If you are buying gluten ingredients for a family member, get that last, and make sure it is completely separated from your bulk purchases (this can be a problem when using cloth sacks with draw strings because particles can get down there – easy to solve if the gluten goes on the bottom of the cart, and the gluten-free on top)
• Talk to the store managers you frequent.  Let them know about your desire to do zero waste with a gluten-intolerance.  Suggest moving the bulk bins around, creating a separate gluten-free bulk section.
• If your bulk areas have the possibility of contamination, try going without bread or pasta, while you talk to the store managers about rearranging the bulk bins.  Also, visit a gluten-free bakery, if one exists where you are, and get some goodies for a party, or just a special treat using your own containers.  
• Serve yourself from the back of the bins, where contamination is least likely to happen
• Go to the store early in the morning before the crowds, for the best opportunity to avoid contamination.
• When travelling, remember to pack a gluten-free/waste-free snack!

Gluten-free flour mix recipe

(Use it in a one on one ratio for any flour recipe; works best in gluten-free recipes)

• Six cups brown rice flour
• 1 cup corn starch
• ½ cup psylium seed husk powder

That’s it!  To go faster, I don’t even measure– I just get a bunch of brown rice flour, throw on some corn starch and some psylium powder and hope for the best!   I can now have home-made pasta (my husband is a genius with pasta), bread (I LOVE my nut-filled, cinnamon tasting bread, which I don’t make often because of time, but I can make a quick flat bread for lunches, etc.), muffins, pies, quiches, you name it.  The quality of our food is incredible, and my husband says this is the best he has eaten in his entire life – he has zero complaints!

Design Case Studies with Altherm Window Systems: the O'Sullivan Family Home

The fourth in our series of Design Case Studies visits the super low-budget Auckland home of architect Michael O'Sullivan (of Bull O'Sullivan Architects) and Melissa Schollum, which Michael mostly built himself. It's an inspiring tale of creating architectural magic on a low budget. This series is brought to you by Altherm Window Systems The photographs are by Florence Noble.

Michael and Melissa’s 115-square-metre home in the Auckland suburb of Mangere Bridge (which was a finalist in our Home of the Year award in 2009), cost just $152,000, but that doesn’t mean you should presume you can get a house that cheap for yourself. The house cost so little because the couple didn’t pay a builder – Michael did all of that himself, with the regular help of some of the couple’s neighbours. “It’s the labour that kills projects,” Michael says, estimating that, if they had paid for a builder and for architects’ fees, their house would have cost over $300,000 – which is still a pretty good deal. 

Melissa in the kitchen, with its brass-clad island.
The plates on the mullions behind her are by Rachel Carley.

On this project, Michael was determined to do things differently from the start. “We didn’t have a budget,” he says. “We had $70,000 to start with, and we had decided to work with that in the first instance and see how we went.” That amount of money, along with many hours of Michael’s labour, got them as far as the basic timber structure being erected, and with the roof on. 

The kitchen and living areas have a cedar ceiling
with lights residing behind the triangular cutouts.

With their funds depleted, it was time to visit the bank, but not to request a conventional mortgage. “We went to the bank and said this is how far we’ve got, but we didn’t know how much it was going to cost to finish off,” Michael says. They did, however, know how much they could afford to pay off a mortgage each week, a figure the bank used to estimate the maximum the couple could borrow and set up what was essentially a floating overdraft. “They were initially a bit sceptical,” Michael says, “but they’re pleased now they’ve seen what we’ve done.”

This view of the dining area (with a dining table by IMO) shows
the home's main entrance. A small deck outside is shaded by an oak tree.

Michael and Melissa needed to remain extremely mindful of how much money was required to finish the building within their budget, but in a sense, the most pivotal budgetary decision – to keep the house relatively small – had been made early on. There is only one bathroom, but a more difficult choice was to design the house with just two bedrooms, as by the time it was nearing completion, the couple’s third child was about to be born. So far, however, children Seamus (4), Finbar (3) and Mary (2), as well as Michael’s son Rem (11), who stays occasionally, like their relatively large room with its bunk beds, and the house has been designed so the later addition of another bedroom is possible. Michael thinks the decision not to have a third bedroom saved between $15,000 and $20,000 in materials alone, as well as making the building process about two months quicker because of the home’s smaller footprint. (Since these photographs were taken, Michael has added an upstairs area with more children's bedrooms).

Savings like this meant that there was enough money for strategic splurges in other parts of the house. The kitchen has marble-topped benches – a luxurious addition in a low-budget house – and the bathroom is lined entirely in vivid green marble. Admittedly, Michael managed to secure most of these materials at bargain prices, but although they still cost more than more basic materials would have, these additions add a textural richness that makes the compact house feel warmer and more generous that it might have otherwise. 

There are other areas where Michael wished the budget had stretched. The bedroom ceilings are lined in basic pine ply, which Michael feels lacks the elegance (and is a little less forgiving of his limitations as a builder) of the cedar that the couple purchased to line the ceilings of the living area. But these are small quibbles compared to the overall satisfaction their completed home now offers – not only the space and shelter it provides for the family, but the lasting relationships this collaborative project established with the neighbours who helped Michael and Melissa out so much.  

A view of the home's second deck that connects to the living area and hallway.

3 things you can do to save water using 3 containers you already have

I went to Quebec to speak about my lifestyle last week. The Quebecois might not see it as a blessing, but the amount of snow on the ground made me envious... In California, we're experiencing a major drought. And although I brought some 'bad" weather back with me (it finally rained this weekend), Northern California is far from meeting its annual precipitation requirements.

A drought is sad, but it's not all negative: It's made everyone here rethink its water consumption. For our household, it's been an opportunity to tweak a few things. Since adopting the Zero Waste lifestyle, we reduced our water consumption substantially with the tips mentioned in my book, such as applying the rule "If it's yellow, let it mellow", running only full loads of laundry, eliminating thirsty landscaping, installing drip systems, etc. That said, our current desperate situation pointed to some inefficiencies.

Here are three small adjustments we've made or 3 things you too can do to save water using three containers you already have.

Tip 1: A bucket... to flush the toilet 

A bucket collects water in the shower

In previous years, we had a bucket in our shower to collect water while it heats, but having to take it downstairs and outside to dump it onto our plants, we got lazy and eventually stopped doing it.
Today, we brought the bucket back, but we use the collected water to flush the adjacent toilet: It makes so much more sense, it's so much closer than our backyard!
If you've never tried it before, don't be afraid, there is no trick to it: just pour the water into your toilet bowl and whatever is in it, will simply flush out.

The tile grid helps to set the best location for filling the bucket
-we can't spare a drop here!

To keep it from scratching the tile and avoid the purchase of a plastic bucket, we outfitted its bottom rim with a scrap piece of clear tubing, sliced in half .

Tip 2: A tub... to soak dishes (and water plants, if needed)

Our kitchen sink's tub

We used a tub in the sink before the drought, but we had set it on the right hand side of the sink and we would fill it every morning.
Today, we have moved the tub to the left hand side of the sink, under our soap dispenser and faucet. We no longer need to fill it in the morning: it gets filled through washing, straining, rinsing, etc. After Zizou licks our dishes, we use the collected water to rinse them prior to loading the dishwasher. We then dump the water onto ornamental plants outside (once or twice a day, depending on the amount of cooking involved) - that's an advantage of using a mobile tub vs. a double sink to collect water.  The trace of Castile soap in the water also benefits our plants, by keeping fungus and pest at bay (see anti-fungal recipe in my book).

Our tub, placed under the soap dispenser and faucet.

A sink strainer also eliminates the need to run water for the garbage disposal -we empty it into our compost receptacle.

Tip 3: A trash can... to collect rainwater

Our former trashcan as rainwater catchment

The refuse bin is generally a household's largest container: A Zero Waste lifestyle frees it up for better uses than sending resources to a landfill. We've been using ours for gardening purposes: To carry the cubic yard of loose mulch that we get delivered to our house once a year, to contain the leaves that we sweep off our steps and use as weed control, to collect the few weeds that we pull throughout the yard and then put in the compost bin. Since 2008, our trash can has thus been repurposed into a wheelbarrow -sans wheels that is :). But in the winter, it usually rests in the back of the house, only to be used by the occasional weekend house renter. This past storm blew its lid open to collect 12" of rain. Scott marveled at how many inches dropped from the sky (as you know, he is a number's kinda guy), I marveled at how much water I collected for my living wall (as you know, I am a practical kinda gal). It seems that nature took care of things, but we learned from her and will open our lid for, we pray, subsequent rains.

With the water that I collect every week from my herb planter and that we collected with our trash can this week, I have enough water to care for my houseplants this month...

A small bucket also catches drainage from my herb planter

My plant wall thriving with my rainwater/drainage mix

... and at the end of which, we'll hopefully be blessed with more rain!

Regardless of rainfall, my trash can will no longer sit unused, for I have found that, with its lid upside down, it's a great place to deposit the crumbs that collect at the bottom of my bread bag and toaster each week... I'd have never thought that my trash can would one day become a bird feeder ;)

Our former trash can as a bird feeder.