Make Do and Mend.....

Money has been tight lately; I’m sure many of you can relate. Instead of running to the store each time I think of something we need, I’ve had to instead put down the purse and search around the house to see what’s already there. And you know what I’ve learned? I usually already have what I need right at home.

It’s a skill most people have lost over the years and one I certainly need to work on. The “Make Do and Mend” motto of our great-grandparents and grandparents has been replaced with big-box store collectors and hoarders of a different kind. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve bought items only to return home and realize I have two of the same item in the garage waiting to be used. Or that I could have created something with some ingenuity and some help from Pinterest. Maybe “making do” was easier than I thought.

The other day I was planning on making homemade ravioli and realized we didn’t have any ricotta cheese. My natural inclination was to plan a trip to grocery store, until I realized my wallet was bare. It was in the same moment I saw the book, “The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making” by Alana Chernila on the shelf. I popped it open and found a recipe for ricotta cheese. Milk and lemon juice; I had both. Soon I was mixing the fresh and creamy ricotta with spinach and garlic from the garden without spending a dime. And you know what? It was easy.

And I realized that this was probably what people did before. Those who lived during the Great Depression and World War II rationed, reused, saved, and upcycled* items. They grew victory gardens and kept chickens. They used what they had and they didn’t need to go to Target twice a week to survive (no offense Target, I love you!)

Many are trying to do the same thing now. We see people growing their first summer garden or trying their hand at making cheese. We see boutiques featuring recycled/upcycled items (like the lovely Embellish and Restore boutique in downtown Visalia), hundreds of Etsy stores like Appendage and Bough, and blogs showing us 50 things to do with wood pallets. It’s a sign of the times, but it’s also a sign that maybe being a throwaway society isn’t what’s best for society.

Let’s make our great-grandparents and grandparents proud. Let’s “Make Do and Mend.”

*What’s the difference between upcycling and recycling? 
I like the following definitions from Melanie J. Martin, a National Geographic.com’s Green Living writer, “Recycling means to turn waste into a reusable product or to refurbish a product for reuse. Upcycling, a particular form of recycling, involves turning waste material or an unwanted product into a better-quality product. Recycling follows the philosophy that used items can still be useful -- or provide useful materials. Upcycling aligns with this philosophy but takes it a step further, asserting that items made from recycled materials can be even more desirable than the original products.”