Projects
A FEW THINGS ON OUR MINDS LATELY
Our current list includes FOOD MILES. Measuring and reducing food miles. This project started at least 5 years ago with The Natural Step coach, Dorothy Atwood. The project still goes on. And, well, we use lots of olive oil and that sort of blows all our good work local numbers. We are trying to figure out how to preserve the local tomato harvest so that we stop bringing in tom sauce from California. That would have the most impact on reduction of food miles at HOTLIPS.
We are studying LED lighting. LEDs use a fraction of the electricity of standard or fluorescent lights. The light is icy cold, though, and no place to snuggle up with your pizza slice. So right now we are using it only sparingly.
More and more of our time is spent TEACHING and SPEAKING in the community. Classes and groups come to our Commissary. David and Lou tramp all over the place speaking about the fundamentals of Sustainability. David has an incredible presentation that he has shown lately on the relationship between peak oil, agriculture and local economy. Let us know if you have a group that would like to hear about this.
Specifically LEARNING more about Social Sustainability. HOTLIPS is now a place where 105 people share their lives. And that's just the ones in HOTLIPS' employ. Our family is huge. So we have been exploring the principles of Social Sustainability. We are having conversations with some very knowledgeable and curious people. That is always a good sign.
On the way-out-there thinking we are trying to envision what an ALTERNATE FUEL might be to power pizza ovens. We imagine that in the not-too-distant future natural gas will be prohibitively expensive. Wood probably will be too. We are wondering about some sort of agri or bio-pellet. Have you had any thoughts along these lines? We would love to hear your ideas.
At the COMMISSARY we are working on sausage making, soups and hot sauces. We now cure our own hams, roast our own turkeys and meats for sandwiches.
Of course HOTLIPS HOUSEMADE SODA has been one of our biggest projects over the past year. You can read more about that in the WHAT'S NEW section of this site.