The ultimate in kitchen gardening and nutrition, sprouts are crammed full of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. All they need is a bit of soaking, followed by a few rinses a day. A jar and a bit of netting or a sieve make good sprouts houses, and a spot like the kitchen dish rack is perfect to let them drain. Taking up little room, they’re the perfect greens for places were space is at a premium, like in apartments. And what other food can you harvest within days of starting to grow it?!

At the moment we’re enjoying fresh fenugreek, mung bean and lentils sprouts – they’re ideal for the first exploration into the world of sprouts.

Our sprouting bible is Isabell Shiphard’s ‘How can I grow and use sprouts as a living food? Be warned – Isabell’s extensive knowledge and infectious enthusiasm for sprouts, will have you running to the kitchen for a sprouting jar! Isabell’s website’s well worth checking out at www.herbsarespecial.com.au. Happy sprouting!

Organic food Co-ops are a fantastic way to build community and support organic farmers and local food producers. They’re run collectively, with an emphasis on making sustainably grown, minimally packaged whole foods, available at affordable prices.

Exciting news for Wollongong is that an Illawarra Organic Food Co-op is now forming. The next working group will be held on Wednesday November 12, at the Thirroul Neighbourhood Centre between 6pm and 7pm. All with an interest in helping a fantastic food co-op come to life are welcome!

Here’s something that can be a bit hard to digest. Even if we have the most water and energy efficient house and use public transport, we can still be really big consumers of water, emit lots of greenhouse gases, and have an awfully large eco footprint (that’s the amount of land needed to support us). How can this be??? Well, it’s because of all the water, energy and land that’s needed to make all the goods and services we use. And surprisingly, its food we need to think about the most to have more sustainable lives.

In Wollongong we have a pretty big ecological footprint – 6.14 hectares of land are needed to support each one of us. If everyone lived like this we’d need another two or three planets! Would you believe that food is responsible for 43% of this ecological footprint, compared to personal transport at only 3.8%! And 26% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the food we eat, compared to the electricity we use in our homes, which contributes only 13.3%. What about water? Well food guzzles 44.7% of the water used to support our lifestyle, compared to household water use at 19.7%.

It starts to make sense when you hear that it takes 20,000 litres of water to make one kilo of coffee, that Australia’s meat products industry emits 91 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, and that so much of our food is produced far away, and comes to us packaged and often processed.

Luckily when it comes to food, what’s good for us and our community, is good for the planet too. We all know the story – fresh, whole foods, lots of veggie dishes, eating what’s in season, buying organic and fair trade and supporting local growers. And we can be so much more creative! Backyard food forests, school permaculture gardens, fruit trees in our streets and parks, food co-ops, sprouts on the window sill – it’s all about food. Sustainable living begins with your next bite!

For more information about how food affects your sustainable lifestyle, see http://www.acfonline.org.au/consumptionatlas