This tomato sauce recipe comes from my mother-in-law. We use it as pizza sauce, pasta sauce, and the best damn tomato soup you’ll ever eat! This blog is part of a series about preserving food so you can eat local all year long. I’ve collected them all into a free course that you can access here.
Last year I turned about 30 pounds of fresh Roma tomatoes from my farmers market into 17 quarts of canned tomatoes for year round cooking. Tomatoes are such a favorite for me that I’m devoting several blogs to my best strategies to bottle this summer goodness […]
It’s canning season! My backyard garden is starting to overflow with vegetables and I’m starting to see bushels of tomatoes and cucumbers at my farmers market. It’s the most wonderful time of the year! This blog is part of a series about preserving food so you can eat […]
We’ve been on again, off again with making our own mayonnaise over the years. It’s not that hard, but buying mayo from the store seems so much easier… thats my habit talking, right? I am not in the habit of making my own mayo so it seems easier to buy […]
Happy July! I can still say that, right? Have you heard of “Plastic Free July”? I figure since the month is almost half way over, I should really start talking about it! Plastic Free July is a global movement encouraging everyone to refuse single use plastic for one month. […]
Since the spring vegetables are ripening in our garden one at a time, I’ve been able to obsessively focus on finding recipes to highlight the perfectly ripe and exciting because they’re finally ready to eat veggies. For a couple of weeks now the object of my obsession has been sugar […]
I’ve had chives in my herb garden for as long as I can remember, but I’ve never figured out how to incorporate them into my cooking. This spring, since I’m unemployed, the newly appointed head chef, and trying to minimize trips to the grocery store (for both financial and COVID […]
Hi! I’m Erin Augustine and welcome to Carbon Free Family — a blog where I’ll share tips and stories about my sustainability progress, failures, and philosophy.
I hope to help you define what sustainability means for you and your family, achieve progress on your journey from exactly where you are, and debunk the “sustainability is hard” myth.
Let’s start with further defining sustainability.
The traditional business definition is the triple bottom line – people, planet, profit – and any good business needs to deliver on all three. I believe these same three values apply to personal life and I apply them in the following ways.
At least once a year (usually in January, but it can be anytime) I like to take a few moments to reflect on life and my progress on my sustainability journey. I think there’s huge value in reviewing my actions to make sure they’re a good reflection of my core beliefs and that I’m living the life of my dreams (or at least actively striving for it).