22 minute read
D.I.Y. HOUSEHOLD RECIPES
by Mia LaVada, Melanie Pores, Georgia Julius
Staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic upended most of our normal routines. We cooked more, we organized more, and we created more. We became more resourceful when grocery store shelves were empty and budgets became tight. DIY projects seemed to be everywhere.
The following recipes can be simple, cost-effective, and eco-friendly approaches to managing your home.
Start with simple steps like using white vinegar instead of store-bought cleaning products to clean your kitchen and bathroom. Scrub your pots and pans with coarse sea salt and a lemon cut crosswise for a fresh scent. Once you’ve got these basics down, try out some of our DIY household recipes below.
Melanie’s Favorite Homemade Body Butter Cream by Melanie Pores
This recipe is for homemade body butter that is easy to make, smells really good, and makes your skin feel nice and smooth. I've enjoyed making and using it for years, both for myself and as a gift for friends and family, and I'd love to share the recipe with you!
What You Need:
½ cup Cocoa Butter ½ cup Mango Butter ½ cup Coconut Oil ½ cup Avocado Oil 30 drops of your favorite blend of essential oils* The Steps: In a double boiler or glass bowl, combine all ingredients except the essential oils.* Bring to medium heat and stir constantly until all ingredients are melted. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Add essential oils if using. Move to the fridge and let cool another hour or until the butters are starting to harden but are still somewhat soft.
Use a hand mixer to whip for 10 minutes until fluffy. Return to the fridge for 10-15 minutes to set. Store in a glass jar with a lid and use as you would regular lotion or body butter. If your home stays above 75 degrees, it may soften and need to be kept in the fridge, but it will stay whipped at a temperature lower than that.
*You can also melt the butters and oils (excluding the essential oils) in a microwave, stopping and stirring frequently, to ensure the butters melt completely.
In relation to the essential oils, I’ve used lavender in the recipe, and rubbed the body butter on before bedtime for a sense of calm. A yummy combination of orange and vanilla essential oils smells like a creamsicle. The possibilities are endless, so be creative!
D.I.Y. Laundry SOAP by Georgia Julius
Super cheap and easy all-natural liquid laundry detergent that costs pennies per load! I make five
gallons at a time and don't have to worry about it for a few months. I mix it up in a bucket and then use a funnel to fill up more manageable gallon-sized containers. If you use a natural bar of soap, you'll get a gentle detergent with no harmful chemicals or artificial fragrances. I like Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap, which is available in many scents (rose, lavender, peppermint) from organic essential oils.
What you need:*
Washing soda (Arm & Hammer is the most common. Note that this is sodium carbonate, not to be confused with baking soda, which is sodium bicarbonate) Borax (sodium borate, most commonly seen as 20 Mule Team Borax) A bar of natural or laundry soap (I like Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap) 5-gallon bucket with lid (available at hardware stores for about $3 or you can ask for them at restaurants or bakeries for free) Empty, clean gallon jugs or old detergent containers and a funnel
The steps:
Heat up ½ gallon of water to a simmer. Grate the bar of soap and stir into the water until it dissolves.
Fill your bucket almost full with very hot water, leaving enough space to add the soap mixture. Stir in 2 cups each of borax and washing soda until dissolved. Pour the soap mixture into the bucket and stir well. Leave to set overnight. Stir until smooth. If it has formed a gelatinous mass, you may choose to blend it—I have found that an immersion blender or whisk is the easiest way to do this.
D.I.Y. Overnight Oven Cleaning Scrub by Mia LaVada
Use ½ to 1 cup per laundry load and enjoy!
*A note on where to find the ingredients: Borax and washing soda are available in the laundry section of many stores. HWFC carries a large assortment of Dr. Bronner’s!
What You Need:
1 Tbsp liquid washing soap 1½ cup baking soda ¼ cup distilled white vinegar Enough water to make the cleaner into a paste
The Steps:
Remove the oven racks. Rinse with hot water, then let soak in the sink in soapy hot water. Stir all ingredients together in a small bowl, adding a little water at a time until the cleaner is a spreadable paste. Spread the paste on the inside of the oven either with gloves on or with a paintbrush. Let the paste sit for 6-8 hours or overnight. Fill a large bowl with warm water. Use a sponge to scrub and wipe away the paste. Dip the sponge in the water bowl to rinse off. Change out the water as necessary. Wipe with a dry cloth once all the paste has been scrubbed off, and put the oven racks back in the oven.
Mia LaVada is a newer member of Honest Weight. She prides herself on exploring culture through food and frequently refers to the Co-op as her “happy place.” She can be caught perusing the Baked Goods Dept. looking for inspiration for her next baking project. Find her latest bakes on Instagram: @passionforsugar.
Melanie Pores is presently retired after having served a 30+ year career as a bilingual educator, teacher-trainer, resource specialist, school board member, adjunct professor, educational researcher, and policy analyst. She has facilitated the Co-op’s Spanish Conversation Group for the past 5 years. She has presently switched to facilitating the group as a Zoom Group on Friday.
Pandemic Journal from an Honest Weight Employee
by Janet Topal
It is mid-March and the realization that COVID-19 is here to stay has set in.
Monday, 3/16: This is the first day of the new store hours starting at 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. to accommodate seniors and immunocompromised shoppers. My co-workers and I arrive at the store at 5:30 a.m., somewhat apprehensive because we are not sure how popular this will be.
6:00 a.m.: Store opens with customers waiting outside. The store is busier than expected. Many of the customers are grateful for the early morning hours. People are filling up carts. There is a lot of panic buying. I spend most of the day bagging groceries and helping customers get out of the store as quickly as possible.
NOTE: We are now required to wear masks and gloves.
Meanwhile: A customer comes in and says this is the first time she has been out of the house in a while. She tells us she had stage-four cancer and even though her family is helping her, she wants to shop for herself. The early hours made her feel comfortable enough to come in.
“Apparently, people like their chips and salsa during a pandemic because I have had to fill the chip aisle three times this week.” Janet masked up and ready to start her day!
3/23–3/27: I spend the rest of the week bagging groceries and stocking shelves. Delivery trucks are sporadic. Shelves are about 50% full. People are in total panic-buying mode. Every day this week is like pre-holiday shopping. The store has the highest sales record ever. I go home exhausted.
NOTE: People are patient, waiting in long lines and are filling multiple shopping carts. Some customers say the extra food was for children suddenly home from school.
Saturday, 3/28: I get to the store at 7:30 a.m. to help unload two trucks. The store is busy when it opens
at 8:00 am. I stock the baking aisle for four hours. Customers are taking baking soda and flour from me as I am opening boxes.
Monday, 3/30: I arrive at 6:30 a.m. to help bag groceries and stock shelves. The customers come but the delivery truck does not. The truck has broken down and doesn’t come in until noon. My coworkers from administration and I have to stock shelves because the morning crew had left.
NOTE: Apparently, people like their chips and salsa during a pandemic, because I have had to fill the chip aisle three times this week.
Meanwhile: While out on the floor, I have one customer walk away disappointed because we do not have veggie sticks. I convince him to buy veggie chips instead, same thing, different shape. I figure, life must be wonderful for this man, if he only has to settle for veggie chips instead of veggie sticks.
Meanwhile: I overhear a young couple making light conversation in the tofu aisle as if they were on a first date. Interesting place to connect.
4/1–4/3: I try wearing the N95 mask my mother sent me. I wear it for 10 minutes and have to take it off. I seriously do not know how people can work with these things on all day. I have a renewed appreciation for healthcare workers. I spend the rest of the day wearing a cloth mask that the store has provided. It is flimsy, but at least I can breathe.
Meanwhile: I notice a mom with two teenagers in the aisles. The mom is shopping, and the kids are busy on their phones. No one is wearing masks. Really?
The rest of the month of April and into May the store has made some changes:
There is now a limit of 50 customers in the store. It’s strange to hear daily announcements like, “Gooood morning, Co-op shoppers, thank you for shopping with us today, we are currently at our store limit, so please wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose, follow the arrows on the floor, and shop with intention. Thank you for making the Co-op a safe place to shop!”
The store opens every day with fun and inspirational tunes such as Ike and Tina Turner’s version of Proud Mary and the theme song from Rocky.
Daily lunch and dinner are provided for staff.
Curbside ordering is now provided. Customers enjoy this service, especially the ones that order over $800 worth of food.
The café has been turned into an in-store plants department.
Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine I would be risking my health going to work, in a marketing department, for a local food co-op. So why do I continue to venture into a place of risk? It is my small way of helping out the community and the small business I work for. I want to do my part to make sure my small, socially conscious, “People and Planet before Profit” food co-op stays in business.
Peace.
Janet Topal is a Member and one of many Owners of Honest Weight Food Co-op. She works in the Marketing Department as the Merchandising and Promotions Associate. She designs and produces sales flyers and signs for in-store promotions, works with department managers to develop promotions, and supports them with food sampling and raffles. Not a bad gig.
Reclaiming Our Ancient, Daily Bread
by Blaise Farina
One sunny afternoon late last summer, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, and just north of New York State’s Helderberg Escarpment, I was amusing myself in Greg Giorgio’s backyard, gazing alternately at a red-tailed hawk circling overhead and at Giorgio laying the final tiers of fireproof brick for his masonry oven. The oven, probably standing six feet tall and thirty feet behind the house, manifests creative physical labor and concretizes a passion to produce wood-fired sourdough bread. Having plastered the last red brick into position, the long-haired Giorgio walked toward me, trowel in hand, and asked, “Any questions?” So I replied, “When do we eat woodfired sourdough?” His rejoinder: “Construction is part of it, so more work still needs to be done.”
More work?
Giorgio invited me back several weeks later, so that I could observe him conduct the fifth of six curing fires, all designed to progressively dry the bricks' residual moisture. Giorgio had been constructing and kindling these fires so that each would be slightly bigger and hotter than the one before, until the oven’s internal ceiling morphed from black to white, one sign of curing success. When I arrived, I found him poking the split logs on which the flames of a roaring fire crackled as they licked the dome’s inner roof. Let me not over-romanticize Giorgio’s backyard bread project; he relied readily on an infrared thermometer
gun to measure the chamber's temperature and bring it to 450 degrees, perfect for bread. Giorgio is not a certified bread baker, let alone a Lionel Poilâne clone. Perhaps what distinguishes him from most culinarians is not his passion to engage in creative, meticulous work, but rather his propensity to resist the pernicious practices of the prevailing food regime’s mass-produced, commodified bread.
Throughout this fifth curing fire, Giorgio, who had stumbled onto progressive food politics in the 1980s while leafleting for workers' rights at a Utah Phillips concert, was not shy about voicing his view on the mass production of bread. He stressed that the shelves of convenience stores and supermarkets throughout Europe and North America are stocked with multifarious brands of bread that radiate technological progress and capitalist triumph as well as illusions of exhaustive consumer choice. By the late 20th century, such loaves concealed their linkages to, and dependence upon, far-reaching geographies of social labor, monopolized socioecological processes of bread production, and economic exchange executed under exploitative conditions in culturally diverse places across the planet. 1 "People should challenge the processes that bring bread to their tables," he told me as we gazed
1 For one glimpse at the bread monopoly in North America, please see: Howard, Phillip H. "Decoding Diversity in the Food System: Wheat and Bread in North America." Agriculture and Human Values, 33, no. 4 (2016): 953-960. readcube.com/articles/10.1007%2Fs10460-016-9727-y
As for socio-ecological exploitation, please consider: Liam Goucher, et al, "The environmental impact of fertilizer embodied in a wheat-to-bread supply chain." Nature Plants, 3 (3), no. 17012 (March 2017): 1-5. nature.com/articles/ nplants201712
And so I comprehended how much work remains.
Given Giorgio's view, I suspect we need an alternative food paradigm that re-imagines our planet as a global commons whose resources are cultivated and shared by people empowered by democratic governance. I suppose Giorgio imagines something like an ethics of global usufruct, the civil right for folks to use property vested in another and benefit from it as long as it is not altered and impaired. Unquestionably, his backyard bread project is an important political act. And yet, he cannot go it alone, nor can anyone else, nor can political actors sally forth successfully as if the only socio-ecological space that matters is the one they happen to be in. Reimagining and remaking bread production and distribution, as Giorgio notes, calls for folks to “challenge and transcend the dominant production forms imposed by predatory capital accumulation,” the sort of challenge illustrated by “Food First's work to teach people to gain more control of their food supply and [thereby] gain food justice.” 2
What happened to our discussion of Giorgio’s wood-fired sourdough, you ask?
Giorgio and his partner K. had been planning a garden party that featured his fresh brick-oven sourdough before the pandemic arrived. The party promised to be similar to their previous homespun gatherings, which brimmed with conviviality. Never mind the details of these shared meals at a common table, except to underscore the fact that the provender was fresh, whole food punctuated by glasses of Côtes Du Rône, Jamille, and Bully Hill, and slices of Giorgio’s indoor-baked sourdough. But, as you know, pandemics, which haunt daily life, are divisive. As we were subsequently divided by selfquarantining and social distancing, the anticipated gathering organized around wood-fired sourdough was duly suspended.
The good news is that in early May 2020, I enjoyed an opportunity to sample one of his first wood-fired
2 Details on Giorgio’s reference to Food First, formally known as the Institute for Food Development Policy, can be examined here: foodfirst.org/ "People should challenge the processes that bring bread to their tables," he told me as we gazed at the blaze in the chamber, "just as much as they should question the ingredients in their bread."
sourdoughs. As it happened, I drove to Giorgio's house in order to pick up a fresh loaf of sourdough packed in a large brown bag placed on his truck’s tailgate. Our exchange required me to provide distanced feedback. So hours later, when I phoned him from home, I was eating a thick slice of this crusty, golden-brown bâtard, whose interior was pockmarked with air bubbles yet dense and chewy. I told him this bread is salty-tangy but distinctively tasty, and asked:
"What's the secret? Is it the importance of your brick oven and relevant baking tools?"
"Well, not entirely."
"Is it the importance of monitoring temperatures throughout the long fermentation and dough development processes? Or the dozens of hours you put into it, and without machinery?"
"All that’s important. But healthful, tasty bread starts with great flour."
"Flour?"
"Yeah, yeah—Ethiopian Teff flour is what I use. Sometimes I buy it in bulk at Honest Weight. Sometimes I buy bags of Bob’s Red Mill, which is the employee-owned, whole grain mill that gets its Teff from Nevada and uses slow grinding, quartz millstones to produce nutritionally rich flour."
Before long, I inquired about his breadmaking pursuit as a form of insurgent politics.
"How will you promote alternative, healthful bread, such as sourdough, and raise consciousness about food justice, particularly amid the pandemic?"
"With advice from scientists and doctors about the coronavirus, I’ve been staying home, playing it by ear, baking sourdough baguettes for a few local people with disabilities and leaving them gratis on their
porches. I wanna teach multi-session courses using my new oven too…teach folks how to bake sourdough bâtards, baguettes, and even sourdough pizzas."
"Zoom meetings?"
"No remote classes. I prefer teaching how to make ancient bread as a collective, real-world activity, with face-to-face chats about worldwide food justice— with all the proceeds from course fees going to the Altamont Free Library."
I shall spare you further witnessing of a scene transcribed at the cost of its sparkle, but a few thoughts remain. Until folks begin to forget, the coronavirus will have reminded us powerfully of our global connectivity.
Meantime, we should never forget how a vital staple like bread is a fabric of our historical human diet.
As for Giorgio’s bread politics, consider the lefthanded tilt of his post-pandemic pursuit—a residual hankering, however sotto voce, to help encourage fresh social and spatial relations through which common people can reclaim an ancient, healthful bread like sourdough.
Blaise Farina has enjoyed shopping at Honest Weight Food Co-op for over thirty years.
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Anti-Racism at Honest Weight
by Alex Mytelka, Marketing Manager
The Co-op has taken on a number of new initiatives in the spirit of immediate action toward a just and equitable co-op and Capital Region community at large. What we’ve done in past years, and even in recent weeks, while a good start, is not nearly enough. We recognize this and we’re hard at work actively striving to do better, plotting a course forward. In the spirit of communication and transparency, here’s some of what we’ve been up to as we attempt to balance swift, immediate action with long-term, thoughtful, and lasting programs and initiatives.
ONGOING PROJECTS AND COMMITMENTS
Most notably on the internal front, our newly formed Anti-Racism Committee held its first meeting on July 20th and has met bi-weekly since. Please look out for updates on the work of the committee (or even better, get involved directly!) We’re also putting a lot of energy into expanding our support of local organizations fighting racism and inequity. We encourage our Co-op community to join us in this effort. This is just the beginning.
We’re sponsoring Root3d’s Black Health Matters class on the first Friday of each month. Root3d is an amazing local organization that we’re very excited to be partnering with. We hope to work together on more projects in the future!
We are the very first sponsor of The Free Food Fridge Albany project, a network of community fridges providing free food while helping fight food injustice. This is a super exciting and brand new initiative put together by Jammella Anderson. Please follow the project as it develops; you can find updates at @freefoodfridgealbany on Instagram.
We’re actively dedicating space on all of the Co-op’s social media feeds to highlight and amplify local Black-led initiatives and Black-owned businesses. These highlights are most often posted in our Instagram and Facebook “Stories,” as that’s the most functional space to “repost” content from other creators and give them credit for their work. Our reposts on “stories” typically receive upwards of 1,000 views! If you aren’t sure how to access the “Stories” feature, it’s easy—just click on the Honest Weight logo on either Instagram or Facebook. All stories are posted to both platforms, and we share lots of things via this feature nearly every day.
SPONSORSHIPS AND DONATIONS
We've made donations to Citizen Action, Soul Fire Farm’s “Fortifying Our Foundation” campaign, and a local Black Lives Matter vinyl decal project supporting Root3d and the Center for Law and Justice. Ongoing donations include weekly fresh produce contributions to the South End Children’s Café’s COVID summer meal program and $1,500 annually to the African American Cultural Center of the Capital Region.
Stay tuned for more action with greater depth in the very near future. Please feel free to get in touch with any feedback, thoughts, or ideas of organizations you think we should be working with. We welcome any ideas on how the Co-op can do more, and do better.
Producer Profile
by Pat Sahr
We truly value the small businesses and dedicated individuals who work hard to create the exceptional goods and products we carry here at Honest Weight Food Co-op. We think these inspirational stories demonstrate the importance of supporting local, and why we’re so committed to it!
SHEA4REAL FOUND IN OUR WELLNESS DEPARTMENT
Godly Intentions is an Albanybased business specializing in natural skin care products that contain no water, fillers, harsh fragrances, chemicals, or parabens. Used daily, these moisturizers soothe many major and minor skin conditions such as dry skin, dry hair and scalp, burns, diaper rash, eczema, psoriasis, stretch marks, skin discoloration, and scars. They are also helpful in relieving symptoms of arthritis, rheumatism, and muscle fatigue. Two of the brands offered by Godly Intentions are Shea4Real and Tree Gard.
Many products on the market contain shea butter, but what is this amazing ingredient, and where does it originate? Shea butter is a fat that is extracted from the nuts of the shea tree, which is native to West Africa, where most shea butter still comes from. Shea butter, with its high concentration of vitamins and fatty acids, has been used as a cosmetic ingredient for centuries.
The partners who run Godly Intentions were inspired to create their own shea butter product because many similar cosmetic products are so adulterated that “shea butter appears maybe 9th or 10th on the list of ingredients.” Their mission is to provide a commodity that is transparently pure: hence the name Shea4Real.
At Honest Weight the Shea4Real brand can be found in the Bulk Department and in 4 oz. containers in Wellness. Soon a new product, Moringa Raw, will be on the shelf in the store. It will consist of pure, raw shea butter infused with the leaves of the moringa plant. The leaves and oils of this “miracle tree” are rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and are imported by Godly Intentions from an organic farm in India.
Tree Gard is the other brand created by Godly Intentions and found at the Co-op. The products with this label are Healing Herbal Pomade Supreme, Divine Coconut Oil, and Sacred Shea Butter. All are infused with beneficial herbs, included to protect and heal all skin types.
Please support this local business by purchasing its products at the Co-op, or find them online at saferbodycare.com.
Pat Sahr has been a member of the Co-op since 2005. She contributes to the Coop Scoop as the writer of the Producer Profiles. Sahr says, “It’s a pleasure being part of the Honest Weight family, and I’ve especially enjoyed communicating with the various producers whose products are sold at the Co-op!”
