Our culture has an obsession with cutting corners. Marketing and popular opinion encourage us to do things the quicker and easier way. But this approach often gives poor results whether cooking something in the kitchen or building something in the garage. Cutting corners has become synonymous with shoddy products, yet many of us still fall for the marketing that tells us otherwise. Walk down the center aisles of any supermarket and you will see a plethora of products claiming to make your life easier. Pre-made this and pre-done that. This in a can, that in a bag in a box. Usually this "convenience" comes with a big mark up.
I would like to go against the grain of popular thought and suggest the opposite approach. Instead of cutting corners, we should look to round them. By this I mean that we should look to make things ourselves instead of buying them and we should tend towards using older less energy intensive methods and tools. It might take a little bit longer, but it costs less and usually gives better results than cutting corners. To help understand what I have in mind I will give an example
I recently started baking my own bread. When I did this instead of buying bread, I rounded a corner. It saves money and makes a better loaf than I would buy at the grocery store. Now I have a lot of experience cooking, but baking is new to me. So I buy packaged yeast. But if I learned how to make a good sourdough starter, I would not need to buy yeast. That would save me more money and make a much more delicious and nutritious loaf than the one I make now (I read good things about the health benefits of eating sourdough). I could round another corner if I milled my own grain instead of buying flour. Although it would require an initial investment in a grain mill, over the long run it would be cheaper to buy grain and mill it myself than to buy flour. Freshly milled grain tastes a lot better and has a lot more nutrients, because it contains the entire grain of wheat. The flour in the supermarket, even the whole wheat flour, has had the germ removed. This allows the flour to store for a long time, but you lose a lot in taste and nutrients. If you look very hard you might find freshly milled flour for sale, but it will cost you a lot more than the flour sold at most grocery stores. I could round another corner by growing my own grain.
Here is another example. I like to garden. This rounds a corner because I produce some of my food right at home. But many opportunities exist within gardening to round corners. For example, I don't have a good space to start seeds at the moment, because my toddler can now reach the spot I used last year. So I buy some plants from a local nursery. However, some seeds grow very well sowed directly into the ground (zucchini, beans, peas, nasturtiums, sunflowers, some lettuces). So I rounded a corner and saved some money by sowing these seeds instead of buying seedlings. If I had a better space to start seedlings I could round another corner and start more plants from seed. I could round yet another corner if I saved my seed instead of buying it. This would require me to learn more about seed saving and to have space suitable for starting seedlings, but I could easily do this given the time and space.
Rounding corners saves money and produces a better end product. I like the phrase because I think it communicates the idea very clearly and simply. At the same time it can be applied very broadly. It also syncs with the principle of LESS (Less Energy Stimulation Stuff). You can round some corners now and get to others as circumstances permit. I had the concept knocking around in my head for a while, but I could not find a good name for it. Doing things the more time consuming way and saving money is a major theme of this blog, so I'm glad I could find a good shorthand for this approach. What corners have you rounded? What corners will you round?
I would like to go against the grain of popular thought and suggest the opposite approach. Instead of cutting corners, we should look to round them. By this I mean that we should look to make things ourselves instead of buying them and we should tend towards using older less energy intensive methods and tools. It might take a little bit longer, but it costs less and usually gives better results than cutting corners. To help understand what I have in mind I will give an example
I recently started baking my own bread. When I did this instead of buying bread, I rounded a corner. It saves money and makes a better loaf than I would buy at the grocery store. Now I have a lot of experience cooking, but baking is new to me. So I buy packaged yeast. But if I learned how to make a good sourdough starter, I would not need to buy yeast. That would save me more money and make a much more delicious and nutritious loaf than the one I make now (I read good things about the health benefits of eating sourdough). I could round another corner if I milled my own grain instead of buying flour. Although it would require an initial investment in a grain mill, over the long run it would be cheaper to buy grain and mill it myself than to buy flour. Freshly milled grain tastes a lot better and has a lot more nutrients, because it contains the entire grain of wheat. The flour in the supermarket, even the whole wheat flour, has had the germ removed. This allows the flour to store for a long time, but you lose a lot in taste and nutrients. If you look very hard you might find freshly milled flour for sale, but it will cost you a lot more than the flour sold at most grocery stores. I could round another corner by growing my own grain.
Here is another example. I like to garden. This rounds a corner because I produce some of my food right at home. But many opportunities exist within gardening to round corners. For example, I don't have a good space to start seeds at the moment, because my toddler can now reach the spot I used last year. So I buy some plants from a local nursery. However, some seeds grow very well sowed directly into the ground (zucchini, beans, peas, nasturtiums, sunflowers, some lettuces). So I rounded a corner and saved some money by sowing these seeds instead of buying seedlings. If I had a better space to start seedlings I could round another corner and start more plants from seed. I could round yet another corner if I saved my seed instead of buying it. This would require me to learn more about seed saving and to have space suitable for starting seedlings, but I could easily do this given the time and space.
Rounding corners saves money and produces a better end product. I like the phrase because I think it communicates the idea very clearly and simply. At the same time it can be applied very broadly. It also syncs with the principle of LESS (Less Energy Stimulation Stuff). You can round some corners now and get to others as circumstances permit. I had the concept knocking around in my head for a while, but I could not find a good name for it. Doing things the more time consuming way and saving money is a major theme of this blog, so I'm glad I could find a good shorthand for this approach. What corners have you rounded? What corners will you round?
Greg, you've touched on a subject dear to my heart: home baked bread! I've been baking my family's bread for over a year now and have just recently got my hands on some sourdough starter. Homemade bread is so much better than store bought. It simply has to be experienced to be fully understood. My partner and I have been looking at milling our own flour, or tradin for flour milled by a friend. Since we just got a half dozen laying hens, we now have a reliable source of eggs for trade and barter. The idea of rounding corners is great, and I hope more people realize how rewarding it can be.
ReplyDeleteGreat phrase! I think rounding corners also fits in with Greer's "collapse now and avoid the rush". It's a lot easier to go from baking your own bread to growing your own grain than it is to go from "I've never eaten anything but Wonder Bread" to growing your own grain.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a 70s back-to-the-land household so we always had homemade bread. Now I buy local spelt, grind it in an electric grinder and make sourdough bread. (If you're going for artisanal and crusty I think Tartine Bread is the very best book on the subject. If you want more of an American sandwich loaf, the blog Home Joys is great.) The next corner I'd like to round is growing my own grain.
Tim, good strategy. If we ever have a chicken coop, I plan to have slightly more egg layers than needed so we can barter with the excess eggs.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, thanks for the recommendations. I plan to get a starter going soon, but it seems like whenever I get around to it the weather gets unseasonably cool and makes it more difficult.