Title: Green Living Made Easy
101 Eco Tips, Hacks and Recipes to Save Time and Money
Author: Nancy Birtwhistle
Publisher: One Boat, Pan Macmillan
Genre: Craft & Hobbies, Home & Garden, Outdoors & Nature
Release Date: 3rd March 2022
BLURB from Goodreads
One change, any change, will make a difference to our precious planet. Great British Bake Off winner Nancy Birtwhistle makes it easy with 101 indispensable tips, ideas, and recipes that will help you to live a more eco-friendly life without giving up on any home comforts.
We all want to do our best for our homes and the planet, but it’s often hard to find the time and energy to think of alternatives.
This practical book from Sunday Times bestselling author and Great British Bake Off winner Nancy Birtwhistle is the ultimate guide to reducing your environmental impact while saving you time and money. Inside are tips and home hacks on everything from eco cleaning, upcycling, and making the most out of your weekly shop to small-space gardening and creative crafts, plus a selection of Nancy's delicious recipes.
Green Living Made Easy is an accessible and clearly explained guide, beautifully illustrated with black and white line-drawings and perfect for anyone looking to pursue a more sustainable lifestyle but unsure where to start.
Includes dual measures.
PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK
It was the bright yellow cover that first attracted my eye to this book. Then I read the blurb and like a lot of other people I feel I do want to make changes to save energy, and recycle, but it can seem like a lot of faff and honestly who knows what is recyclable and more importantly who has the time to mess about?
It honestly wasn’t until I had made the decision to read the book that I realised that Nancy Birtwhistle was the lovely winner of Great British Bake Off, the contestant who referred to a certain judge as “the male judge.” It made me want to read the book even more after seeing her no nonsense, straight honesty when on the bake off I thought if the books the same sort of approach it will be worth reading even if I only adopt a few of the suggested changes. I’ll be totally honest I had thought there would be more tips on cleaning and laundry etc but after reading realised that this is the second book by Nancy and she had covered that sort of thing in her first book. (Yes, its on my list to purchase at some point).
Each chapter has its own heading and illustrations at the beginning which I think is really charming and adds to the book. Why can’t it be pretty as well as practical?
There are plenty of tips on gardening, whether you have an allotment or large enough garden to plant vegetables, or if you have a few pots on the patio. After reading the book, it’s made me long to grow my own mint again! If my health & body were in better shape, I’d still be growing tomatoes, peppers, potatoes etc, as they really do taste even better, when you know the effort, you have made in preparing the ground, planting, tending and harvesting them all yourself. I enjoyed reading the tips on avoiding food waste too. The rolling of herbs in dampened kitchen roll to keep them fresh.
This book is written so well, no airs and graces or preaching things should be done in a certain way. Nancy’s approach is if we all did a little, it would add up and eventually make a big difference. I loved the humour of Nancy going plastic bag free and finding out she had loads of bags at home to use! Some things are “common sense” or family traditions/remedies that have been handed down through the generations, other things are newer practices to adopt and use. These tips and hacks that Nancy suggests don’t mean missing out on things either but perhaps doing things more consciously than you may have been doing. The book feels more like having a chat on how to be more "green" with a friend, rather than being super serious & preachy like some similar books come across.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were that I had discovered some great recipes (for food and homemade cleaning solutions) baking and cooking tips too!
Summing up this is genuinely an interesting read that has certainly given me some interesting ideas to implement, adapt in my efforts to becoming more “green”.
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