Would you trade up for a longer commute?

[WannabeOwner]

Sardine-y or not, high-density living is generally more eco-friendl

Interesting point which, as a bit of an eco-warrior, I hadn't considered.

In my case I work from home (although Wifee commutes). We have a Passive-House (insulation level means virtually no heating required in Winter [nor cooling in Summer, not that we have a need for A/C often in the UK]), we have Solar PV and Solar hot water. However, importantly for us and like @smp22 we grow our own vegetables. In our case we reckon on growing about 80% of the veg we eat - there is a "Hungry Gap" in the Spring when Winter crops are finished and Spring sown crops are not yet mature, but other than that we buy almost no vegetables. I'd be interested in how the Eco-equation stacks up "over all".

It actually has quite a positive effect on our grocery expenses

Speaking for myself our considerations of Grow-Your-Own which we prize are not cost but rather:

Air-miles. Zero in our case. Horrific on much of the stuff available in the supermarket. Personally I think out-of-season crops that are flown in mostly taste horrid, compared to in-season crops that are fresher. I wonder what that contributes to Townies CO2 etc. ratings?

Provenance - no chemicals etc. used on our crops

Freshness - flavour is like nothing you can buy from the shops which have of course been travelling for several days. In crops like Sweetcorn and New Potatoes the Sugar starts converting to Starch from the moment they are picked. We don't take the pan of hot water to the veg plot when we pick ... but there are people that do! ... but we certainly don't pick & store.

Variety - we choose varieties for flavour, period. We have plenty of space, so I am lucky to be able to consider Low Yield and loss to Pest Damage secondary. To take one example, the variety of Blueberry available in shops over here is selected for its nice large shiny berries, but it has the lowest antioxidants (if that is your thing) of any variety of all the Blueberry varieties. The varieties in my garden are amongst the highest Guests are consistently complimentary about how tasty my veg are ... well, it ain't hard! just folk get brainwashed by the lowest-common-denominator sold by the Supermarkets where the variety choice criteria are all-ripen-at-once, ease-of-harvest, resistance-to-bruising and long-shelf-life.

Sustainable. All our vegetable & plant waste is recycled through composting back onto the land, so we don't need a high-energy input of the fertilisers etc. used in modern farming.

Right, sorry about that, I'll put my Soap Box away now!

 

[smp22]

Ditto!

.. "not to mention our well being."
I was already on a tangent so that was my attempt at sparing people.
I think we're very much in agreement.

 

[RogerHScott]

there is a "Hungry Gap" in the Spring when Winter crops are finished and Spring sown crops are not yet mature

I've heard that in some languages the term for the time of year we call spring is "the starving time".