I enjoyed follow the series on the Ready Made blog about going a week without various environmental harms (they’ve done plastic previously and this week attention was turned to processed foods.

The writer, Amy Palanjian plans a week without “anything that is made in a factory/comes in packaging” with some interesting results. Her account provides lovely photographs of each meal served, recipes and a interesting commentary on the experience. I was particularly interested in the issue of time as Palanjian spends a lot of time making initial meals (lessened with the use of leftovers on later days), with a considered response to a right wing newspaper article equating the lack of ‘women in the kitchen’ to women at work.

Palanjian also does quite a bit of detective work, even managing to find several sources of unprocessed chocolate! She also reveals several health benefits she has experienced as a consequence of the new way of eating. She also comments it also turned out to be a week of me deciding to recommit to supporting my local sustainable growers and saving money by cooking everything myself. Inspiration for anyone’s kitchen…