the school store

Remember back in elementary school when you had this little bit of closet space tucked away in some lost corridor that was called “the School Store”? We did. It smelled like erasers and it was in a back room of the library. I don’t know about you but I loved it. It was a big deal if you got to work at the store in the afternoons. Almost as big a deal as staying in from recess to play Oregon Trail .. almost.

The school store doesn’t exist here in our instituto, but we do in fact have a store of sorts. Instead of erasers, pencils and notebooks you can buy organic eggs, oranges and chicken. While photocopying your worksheets for the day, you can request a dozen eggs or a bag of oranges and they will be delivered to you the following day. If you remember, this is how we got our Thanksgiving turkey from the nearby town of Chucena. Our portero (doorman) owns some land and sells his produce and poultry while working here at school. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I could have a bag full of softball-sized oranges with my name on it for a mere €2.50.

I have always been a supporter of the slogan: Buy Green, Buy Local. And why not? So much of the food here goes directly from farm to table with very little outside interaction, that I am hard pressed to even consider buying it somewhere else. My holiday turkey came in a plastic bag and my eggs come in a cone of newspaper with the feathers still clinging to them. For someone who grew up in the suburbs, this is pure genius. We have a local farm down the road that provides us with delicious summer corn, squash and pumpkins. Last year I participated in a community garden at my university, and previously in a CSA. While the garden was rewarding for its physical benefits and personal connection (our eggplants! I’m so proud!), I found the CSA left me wanting. There was little choice of what we received and sometimes our boxes held so much of one product that I had to give it away. Here in Spain I am making my purchases from a local fruteria whose owner happily weighs my produce and charges me next to nothing for perfect potatoes and beautiful bananas. You should see the size of the strawberries!

Buying local is easy here in Spain (specifically, Sevilla) .. is it easier because of our location? Because of the emphasis on agriculture? Because of the importance of food and fresh meals for the family? Regardless of the cause, I’m grateful.. and so is my wallet!

 

the stares you get

Imagine yourself in your office. You’re sitting at your desk or your cubicle. Amidst all of your typical debris of papers, post-its, and paper clips there sits .. a flask. It’s shiny, it’s silver and my god are people staring at you! In lieu of a perfectly acceptable coffee mug with a picture of your 5 year old or Bart Simpson or “I Hate Mondays” .. there’s a flask. On your desk! It’s the middle of the morning, and I don’t know what the heck you’re doing with a flask but you have instantaneously become the latest and greatest office rumor. Dozens of pairs of eyes drill into the back of your head as you go about your business, and someone finally gets elected to ask you the question. It comes out halting and unsure: “What … is .. that?”

what .. is .. that?

Well. That’s what it’s like to carry a metal water bottle here in Spain. Here I am thinking they’d be down with the green since they are Oh So Recyclable. Not so, reusable water bottle friends. My roommate warned me that this would be the case, and although I figured I would get some questions, I did not expect such a funny reaction. This poor bottle has been out of commission for 120 days thanks to the Spanish postal service and damnit, I am going to use it.

My kids are amazed. They’re not sure what I’m doing but they think its awesome. Is it hot? Is it cold? What’s in there? They’re only 13 so I can’t tell them “vodka” because that just wouldn’t go over well. (Maybe I should say it’s “rum from Holland” .. it is my trademark, after all). The teachers are equally stumped.

Why hasn’t the reusable bottle caught on here? I’m mystified. All these runners and cyclists and what are they using? Plastic water bottles. For goodness sake haven’t they seen The Story of Stuff? They’ve already got enough air pollution between automobiles and gypsy fires .. and now we’re cluttering up the works with plastic bottles. Dislike.

So look out gym, school and public… me and the metal water bottle are stepping out.

Sevilla goes green

While Sevilla seems to lack the impassioned environmentalists that populate the US, they do seem to have their minds made up about the benefits of recycling and progress toward sustainable living. There are a few different things we have happily encountered while trying to be green abroad. Most recent examples follow.

SHOP
- pay to use a shopping cart at the supermarket, get your 1 euro back after you return it to its proper place.
- pay to use a plastic shopping bag. only a few cents, but I’m on a budget here!
- all señoras have rolling bags, and we have seen some outrageous stuff fit in there, including but not limited to 15 pounds of raw meat and 5 bottles of wine.
- we are reusing shopping bags, or trying to.

ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION
BIKE
- you’ve heard me wax poetic about Sevici in many of my blogs. It remains a damn good idea and one that I am sure to miss upon returning to the US.. truth be told I do miss my car but enjoy seeking other means of transportation. Particularly those that involve fresh air. HOWEVER, we mailed in our applications for a year-long subscription more than a month ago, and we still don’t have our cards! Come on, Sevilla. Come on.
BUS
- Sevilla’s city buses run on clean energy / fuel (energia limpia), or at least some of them. The local buses run frequently around town and just outside, and several major lines service the nearby cities – although I’m not entirely sure that they run on any sort of clean product.
The bus system (TUSSAM) also uses a tap card system – $1.50 for the card, rechargeable at any Tabaco store or Prensa kiosk. Minimum $6 recharge. Boarded the bus last night, tapped the card on the machine, and it said I had $5.40 remaining. Did I just take a bus ride across town for $0.60?
TRAM
- There is a highly random light rail running a short distance in the historic district. I think the major draw would be an air conditioned ride from point A to point B in the summer, but otherwise I am unsure how useful it is. In truth, we can ride our practically free bikes faster and farther than the tram.
METRO
- We do have a metro running through the city, but the service is limited. The project looks promising, but our contract certainly doesn’t last long enough for us to reap the benefits of said project. (see: 2017).

RECYCLE
- there are receptacles for glass, paper, plastic, metal, even used household oil. We make a valiant attempt to sort all of these things before heading out to the garbage bins outside of the apartment. Our first day in town they were handing out free bags at the commercial center which we now use to carry out our recyclables.

HOUSEHOLD
- toilets are low flush .. except ours which tends to run for a long time unless you swat at it.
- our hot water heater requires an open gas line and a light, which we shut off after using it for showers or washing dishes. Right now our current bombona consumption is at about two weeks per tank, 13 euros each time. Split between three people this is nothing, but we are crusading to be better bombona users. (personally, I’d rather spend my money on croissants).

IN THE NEWS (BBC)
One of the most startlingly advances in green technology involves our drive back and forth to school every day on the A-49 with my coworkers. Remember that I work 40 kilometers outside of Sevilla, so while this is not in our city it is still in the province. Jaime’s curiosity got the best of him and his found this article about it, courtesy of the BBC. Let me just tell you, it is QUITE a sight to see on a sunny morning in Andalucia. It looks like streams of water are shooting out the top of the tower. Next job is to find a way to tour this place …. solar plant enchufe?

Holy solar power

“It is Europe’s first commercially operating power station using the Sun’s energy … and at the moment its operator, Solucar, proudly claims that it generates 11 Megawatts (MW) of electricity without emitting a single puff of greenhouse gas. This current figure is enough to power up to 6,000 homes. But ultimately, the entire plant should generate as much power as is used by the 600,000 people of Seville.” BBC News, May 2007

let’s talk co-op’s

Lots of leafy goodness

Week 3:

• Red leaf lettuce
• Simpson lettuce
• Beets & greens
• Scallions
• Brocolli Rabe
• Red Russian Kale
• Cucumbers
• Squash

Our box is definitely getting heavier as the weeks go by .. they are spoiling us! I’m excited about the cucumbers for salads, and my boss is going to try a cucumber cold soup. We had so many between the slicing cucumbers and the pickling cucumbers that I had to bring some into work. The colleagues are not complaining Seth is officially addicted to kale, and excited about the beets. Parents threw scallions in with the roasted vegetables on the grill and it gave it some great flavor.

In other news, there is some talk going around about the Lehigh Valley Food Co-op. On their website there is an amazing amount of information, including the annual fee ($75) and drop off site (Center Street in Bethlehem for us). The product list for June is extensive, and I think some further investigation is necessary. I’d be into it for the meat & dairy components, since Season’s Harvest is already providing my vegetables.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on the bounties of food cooperatives .. I’ll report back with product list vs. grocery list – an experiment to see how well the price tags match up.