Precycle!!

Do you know...I can now make chocolate spread! And cheese. And a vitamin C supplement. And ketchup. And much, much more.

So I am forever grateful for the day that Precycle! by Paul Peacock landed on my front door mat.

I must admit to being thrilled to be asked to review this book but when I mentioned it to some fellow greenies they had never heard the word ‘Precycle'. So just to be sure we all know what it means, I checked what it said in the book:

‘Precycling is making the things you need rather than allowing the manufacturers and supermarkets to dictate what you buy. It is doing away with the need to recycle by making it yourself; keeping the bottle and using it again and again.'

Basically, precycling is going back to something we used to do half a century ago and drawing on all those skills and common sense we seem to have forgotten in our instant, plastic, disposable world. Imagine the much-used phrase ‘reduce - reuse - recycle'. Well precycle comes before ‘recycle'. It cuts out the supermarkets and encourages you to make all those essentials easily at home and for a fraction of the cost (both financial and environmental). Recycling uses a lot of energy so by making your own products, you cut down on waste and energy consumption.

Reading the book I was transported back to my childhood, watching my grandparents making wine or bread or yoghurt and cooking freshly caught shrimps huddled round a tiny gas stove at Sandwich Bay. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and loved learning how to create things that I thought I would never be able even to attempt, let alone make successfully.

It is the sort of book that now I have read through once, I will keep referring to constantly and use for many years. It is easy to read and informative without being too ‘heavy'. Chapters range from meat, breakfast cereal and home brewing to hair and beauty, dairy products and teas and cordials. It is a cross between a recipe book, a lifestyle manual and the author's astute and honest observations on our society.

If you have any Christmas money left over or a birthday coming up, invest in a copy of Precycle!. It will be money well spent.

Jo

Paul Peacock wrote an article for last month's BGI newsletter. To read it click here

www.goodlifepress.co.uk
www.homefarmer.co.uk

 Store cupboard photo (c) Ted Marynicz 2009