Freeganism- Free Foods

Some time in winter a great blogger Tiffany from Nature Moms Blog with her post on Freeganism and Eating Your Way To A Healthier Environment got me thinking on my own Freeganism habits. One of them being fond of free foods. Now with summer here the topic is on the list again.
I'm not at all into Dumpster Diving, nor I have tried to talk to local shops or restaurants since lately I live most of my days in the countryside far away from those. I love free foods that grow out there on wild that just need some time in the forest with a basket and some patience. It may not be Freeganism according to the definition Tiffany posted, but I strongly consider it to be since it's truly free, it is 100% natural and it reduces food overproduction (and also your own food miles).
I grew up in countryside and it has been my legacy to go herb tea, berry and mushroom picking. I found it weird when I moved to other places, cities and countries, that people have no idea that they can eat also foods that are not coming in a plastic boxes on a store shelf. Loads of blackberries are growing in even in semi-wild parks and woods in London and people pass them by. Worse- they look at me as if I were some lunatic for eating them! So I just wanted to come up with a basic list of my very favorites of free food!

Berries:

• Wild strawberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• Cowberries (or lingon berries) 
• Cranberries 

Mushrooms

Teas you will find in this post- many are picked in wild.

I intend to expand my free food list next year and I'll keep you updated on it!

If you think you might like my favorites- or you know you like them from the shops before- learn them and remember them in summer. And believe me- they taste incredibly good, much better than watery farm grown and store bought. They have bright and warm sun, refreshing rains and natures best in them! And many of them last through the winter in your freezer or just in glass jars in your fridge. I know what I'm saying here, because I just popped a handful of fresh cranberries in my mouth that were picked in wild last summer and stored in my fridge. Be smart, be freegan and prepare for next summer!

P.S. - a special thanks to Tiffany for the inspiring post, I intend to try out some of the practices described in the post when I move to the city.

Teapots

Summer has been a busy time on green carpet- lots of outdoor activities, less computer is always good for everyone!
But warm weather has left us again for now and in the rain I cannot go through a day without my cup of tea.. actually several.. Lately noticed that my dear 8years old electric tea pot has started leaking way too much to be comfortable and safe with a kid always somewhere on the floor. Maybe it's a time for a new one?
An offer came on time... small, cute, electric ceramic teapot..
But as a smart consumer I took a step back and started to look around for all options which may be good for us.

I looove having a tea. Lots of it! But do I need a big teapot? No, because I need just one or two cups at a time. So no need to buy a big one. I like to have my tea quickly therefore I never fill the teapot, so my impatience here serves me and earth well without the risk of using too much energy.
Still, I did some comparison of potential use of cute electric that was on offer vs on the stove teapots. Price is not compared since the difference at this moment was not big.

Electric: 
+ easy to use and quick boil
+ has already particular place in the kitchen
+ beautiful pot that can be placed on table for guests, no need to have a "on table" tea pot

- uses electricity (not only less green if comes form fossils, but also more expensive)
- if not careful, people tend to overfill the tank and use more energy than needed for a cup
- sometimes we tend to forget that the water was heating and have to reheat it overusing electricity again
- small tank in case of many guests

On stove: 
+ gas is cheaper than electricity
+ larger if in need of more hot water
+ whistles, so impossible to forget the hot water
+ comes in colors that can be fitted in the kitchen

- takes more space in already small kitchen
- larger tank makes one want to put more water for heating so overuses resources anyway
- our stove has only two cook tops that are mostly used both at the same time, therefore no chance for a tea during cooking
- gas stinks quite a lot and is not very healthy to breath, especially so many times a day

So our family decided to go for the electric tea kettle that is only 1l tank (and still promising to continue only needed cup boiling water policy in our home) and ceramic instead of plastic. It will also be the white cute one on the picture above, so less 'stuff' at home since it's already beautiful enough to be placed on the table.

Ahh, I'm already looking forwards those peaceful tea evenings with hand picked tea of summer!