My other half and I are getting very good at turning the geyser off during the day. Or perhaps it’s more honest to say that my husband is. At five-foot-one, I can’t even try and reach the fuse box. At six-foot, it’s his responsibility. But I have to always remember to remind him.

We’re also beginning to get good at remembering to turn it on again. So far, we haven’t had a morning when we haven’t had hot water. There was one night a near miss – but my husband remembered in the middle of the night and got himself out of our cozy warm bed to flip the switch.

I sometimes panic and wonder if all this turning the thing on and off is going to put too much strain on the system, and we’re going to need to replace our very overworked geyser, but I’ll deal with that problem if it ever comes, and for now I’m feeling pretty virtuous.

It’s incredibly more difficult to think green than I ever imagined it would be. Everything I used to do without thought now requires a complete analysis. I have bought all the shopping bags I think I might need so I don’t need to ask for plastic packets, but I just haven’t perfected the cycle of taking them back out to the car after unpacking. If I do leave them by the front door, I just waltz merrily past them on my way out, completely forgetting to take them with.

Local Can Be Limiting

At the moment, the biggest issue I’m grappling with is trying to eat only local produce. This means eating seasonally, which is supposed to be healthier for you anyway, and frequently having to deny myself things that I feel like eating on a whim.

For instance, when is the Turkish asparagus season? Carrefour asparagus is imported from Italy, and the packet I found in the Supermarket came from Thailand. Asparagus is great in some of my dishes. I am having to rethink my entire recipe strategy to reduce my food’s carbon miles.

A very useful trick I have learnt is to use my local greengrocer rather than the big chain stores. This is a little less convenient, as the Carrefour and Supermarket are closer, and it means I have to make more stops when I’m shopping (which in itself is bad for the environment), but it does mean that I can have long meaningful discussions about the origins of my veggies with the grocer – and for a food obsessive like me, this is a wonderful idea.

I particularly like that when I want things like fresh peppermint leaves, he’ll bring me a branch off his grandmother’s plant. Now that’s real customer service.

The Meat for a Treat

My local butcher is a short distance from my local chain stores, and I try to support him as much as I possibly can. I am still a meat-eater, for all that it’s damaging for the planet, but I do try to eat less than I used to, and make it worth it when I do.

This is where my good and close relationship with my butcher comes into play. The people who work there now know me quite well. I come in with my cookbooks and ask for exotic new cuts of meat, named differently to what they call them in Turkey, and I show pictures so we can work it out together.

They’re always highly pleased to help out, and always enquire, with perfect memories, how well the preparation of the previous meal went.

Small Businesses Need Our Support

Although I love my Supermarket and Carrefour, I also like the close and personal relationship I have developed with my butcher and my green grocer. I wish they were all in a row on the main street, for my ease of shopping, and that we also had a fishmonger to boot.

Aside from the fact that shopping like this is a good way to support our small business, it also allows you to gain a level of familiarity with the people and the produce that you’re buying. You can find out where your fish was caught that morning and whether it’s caught with line fishing or nets (line fishing is better as it reduces waste).

You can find out if your healthy vegetables are locally grown, and get peppermint leaves from a grandmother’s garden. And you can choose the best piece of meat to make your occasional meat eating worthwhile.

But you still have to try and remember to take shopping bags with you and not forget them at the door.