Green Stories

Marge’s Minestrone Soup Recipe

Sandwell Homes' Going Green champion Marge has decided to share one of her green recipes with you.  Marge says "I was cooking Alfred (my husband) his favourite the other day and he was flabbergasted that I hadn’t already shared my recipe with Sandwell Homes' tenants and residents." 

"My minestrone soup really is the bee’s knees and focus’ on true flavour, wholesome ingredients and environmental sustainability.  It’s a quick and easy traditional recipe that even Alfred could make himself (he’s not the best cook).  I use canned beans and diced tomatoes but they are organic (of course) along with the rest of the ingredients."

"Here it is, just for you.  Go on, give it a go". 

Marge  X

Pesky Pigeons

Sandwell Homes Going Green champion Marge passes on the advice of her allotment pals, which gives advice on dealing with pesky pigeons

Some people love them but pigeons eat twice their own weight of food each day and there’s not a lot you can do about it.  Every living thing has its place on the planet, its own niche.  But that doesn’t mean a particular pest has a right to live at our expense….just as rows of green beans appear, all green in the earth, or lettuces push their little heads from the soil, great flocks of pigeons arrive for a free meal.

Pigeons are intelligent birds.  They send out scouts to take note of the predators on the ground and they carefully pick out the best crops to eat first.  Their brains are carefully attuned to movement and they can differentiate between friendly movement, that of a feeding pigeon and the unfriendly movement of a peregrine or a cat.

A lot of research has gone into decoys.  A pigeon isn’t very bothered by the huge representations of birds of prey.  It might look good to a  human, but not to a pigeon.  Neither are they frightened by scarecrows or little men made from pots.  But flashes of light and high pitched noises scare them.  CDs dangled from twigs are as effective as anything.  Unlike many animals they have come to associate loud bangs with death and consequently blank cartridges are used – but not on a small plot.  Short of keeping your own peregrine falcon, which would be illegal, the only other way of protecting your crops from pigeons is to cover them up.  You have to remember that this is a lazy bird that prefers to walk rather than fly, so don’t expect them to simply land on your crop.  Make sure that any defences you have, be it netting, twigs or wires, protect from the ground up. 

Make the Most of your Food - Great Tips!

The Sandwell Homes' Eco Champions encourage you to visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com to share some great tips on how to make the most of your food.  A few examples can be seen below:

Cook once, eat twice - Leftovers might sound dull but they can be really enjoyable.  Imagine cooking once and then having a second tasty meal in the wings partially prepared to 'eat twice' so saving you time and money.  Refrigerate cooled leftovers promptly in shallow containers, covering them well so they don't dry out in the fridge, and using them within 2-3 days.

Time Savers - Batch cooking recipes to make enough for a family meal today and one for the freezer to eat at a later date - saving time and also creating a second meal that is virtually waste free.

Save Time and Money - Planning meals, keeping the cupboard and fridge stocked with basics and keeping an eye on the 'best before' and 'use by' dates can take some of the hassle out of shopping.  It saves us time and money and helps cut down on food waste.

Practical Examples from our Eco Champions:

Dot Gospel lives with husband Peter and the pair lead busy lives with numerous hospital appointments and Sandwell Homes Tenant and Community Involvement meetings.  Saving time and money is important to them so Dot has become an expert on batch cooking so that the food stretches further and she has to cook less often.  She cooks, cools and stores excess food in the freezer for a later date.

Daryll Garland from Tipton lives on his own and used to have a dilemma about what he bought and how much of it, buying more and freezing the excess.  Darryll has a useful tip on making the most of those attractive good deals on meat and veg. "You can make a stew in the slow cooker and freeze it for a satisfying hot meal on a cold Autumn day or cold Winter's night.

Chris, is a grandmother who was brought up to believe 'waste not, want not', which is how she still lives her life.  She's a great believer in using leftovers to prepare new meals.  Chris recommends re-using last night's potatoes by slicing and frying them with onions for a dish of potato saute.  Use leftover Bolognese for a delicious lasagne and make the most of any Sunday lunch leftovers by adding the chopped vegetables and meat onto toast, top with cheese and grill for a wonderful toastie.  Chris' favourite tip to friends and family is "always eat before you go out food shopping.....going on an empty stomach is a recipe for disaster!

Our gardening expert Derek Preece shares his top tips for removing weeds

• Lay old carpets on weedy areas, carpet side down, leave in place for a year; starved of light and air the weeds will weaken and die.  You can then dig over the area, this method is particularly good for allotments

• You can also lay old carpet tiles, carpet side down to make a quick weed proof path.  Edge with bricks and cover with gravel or bark to finish off

Eco Champion Derek Preece shares the benefits of growing your own food

Spring is in the air and what better time to start growing your own food?  The Sandwell Homes Eco Champions love gardening, no matter whether it’s in the garden, the allotment or even in window boxes.  

Why should you grow your own?  Here are some reasons why...

• Your food will be very fresh.
• You can choose what varieties you grow and eat.
• You decide how it is fertilised and pest-controlled.
• Food growing is an invaluable life-skill to pass on to others.
• Budgets are tight, we need to spend less.
• It is rewarding to eat food that you have grown yourself.
• Avoid the supermarket's over-priced monopolies.
• It gets you out in the fresh air.
• It is a great form of gentle (or rigorous) exercise.
• It’s Fun!

…and how does growing your own food help the environment?

• It reduces your food’s carbon footprint; your food will be grown in your back garden or local allotment, instead of travelling thousands of food miles to get to you.
• This will help reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere via exhaust fumes from lorries, ships and aeroplanes.
• The use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides is likely to be reduced.  These harm the environment and interfere with the eating patterns of local wildlife.

Eco-champions Pauline Robinson and Derek Preece give their verdict on some of the eco-friendly products currently available to buy:

Pauline Robinson:

"Because of my arthritis I have grown my own vegetables and fruit in pots; all shape and sizes, and have had good results, fewer pests eating them too. Our Simon does his composting, everything imaginable, small pots at a time, and this means I don’t have to buy much. Lovely jubley. I prefer a book to the T.V. so I’m energy wise, I also make sure two dinners are cooked at a time saving gas. I have eco showers which save on energy and water. I recycle my unwanted clothes, and I do not throw anything away, the only thing I cannot recycle is my cat litter."

Pauline's feedback on sustainability products:

Ecover Toilet Cleaner:

Excellent, this beats top of the range disinfectants. I would recommend it to anyone.

Oxiball 3000

Not Keen. Gave one to my sister to try and she didn’t think much of it either.

Ecover Washing Up Liquid:

Very good but expensive.

Ecover All Purpose Cleaner:

Very good, sinks and baths sparkling and tiles gleaming.

Overall:

“After receiving the eco friendly products from Sandwell Homes we now use only eco friendly products i.e. toilet cleaner, eco wash balls, washing up liquid, kitchen cleaner and whatever may be on the market in the future. As we find all products very useful.

"I am now going to purchase a green cone bin, so that none of our rubbish goes to land fill except cellophane etc, that at the moment is not recyclable at this time of year we are self sufficient with our garden produce: tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes, onions, leeks, garlic, runner beans, dwarf beans, iceberg lettuce, broad beans, beetroot, these plants have all benefitted from my own compost. I am going to enlarge my veg plot so that I can grow more veg products.”

Sifa Rohman, a tenant living in Tipton:

"I grow a lot of vegetables in the garden, I have only been doing this for a few years and didn’t realise how much I would enjoy it! It’s a great chance to get the children involved in picking fruit off the pear trees we have and joining in with all types of gardening.

"This year we have even bought a poly tunnel that works like a greenhouse and it has been incredible to see how much bigger the vegetables grow in it!"

Dot Gospel, a tenant representative from Great Barr, West Bromwich:

"We were thinking of buying a new car because of the Government’s scrappage scheme and bought a Toyota IQ as a run-around initially. It works out that we use this one all of the time now because of the amount of money we’re saving in petrol and road tax.

"The road tax is only £35 and if it was a manual drive it would have been zero! There’s only two of us and although it looks small, which is great for parking it is deceptively spacious inside."

Derek Still, building surveyor for Sandwell Homes:

"I am enthusiastic about saving energy and do everything I can. For instance; I recycle using the bins provided, I take a bag and collect plastic from my colleagues at work who don’t have the service from their homes.

I have a compost bin, use energy efficient lighting throughout the house, have a really good condenser boiler for central heating and water and have recently had new insulation added in the loft. Long term, I know that it will save me money and it isn’t any trouble or a lot of cost to do these things."

Michelle Law and Rebecca Lee from West Bromwich both work for Sandwell Homes:

"Car sharing allows us to benefit from the convenience of using a car but also saves us money as well as reducing the amount of cars on the road.

It also means there are more spaces in car parks and less pollution in the air. There are a number of schemes in Sandwell to help encourage sensible use of your car such as the TravelWise project and there’s also a Carshare Sandwell website."