meansoybean

vegan.eating recently received a sample kit from sans-zo, a Quebec company that sells a nifty waterless car exterior clean spray. It basically allows you to clean the body of your car without the use of any additional water. This is pretty significant considering about 150 liters of potable water goes into a single car wash, according to sans-zo. It’s also biodegradable. The kit came with a bottle of car cleaning spray and two microfibre cloths. It was good timing, since my car was due for a cleaning, so I decided to try it out.

I started with the trunk. I sprayed then wiped with the first cloth, and finished by polishing with the second cloth. It was pretty simple. I continued methodically around the car, leaving the roof for last. The back and the sides were easy, but the front of the car had dried leaf stains and dead bugs stuck on the paint. I had to give an extra spray to those areas and apply a bit of elbow grease to get them clean. I also cleaned the tail/head lights and rims to sparkling perfection.

The verdict? The body looked pretty good for a waterless wash, I have to say. I think sans-zo is a great product for apartment dwelling car owners who don’t have the luxury of a driveway and water hose. It would work well in places where there are restrictions on water consumption too. It’s a good alternative to going to the gas station for a wash, which can get expensive, and those robo washers don’t always do a thorough job. It does take a bit of physical effort to use sans-zo, yes, but if you actually like taking care of your car like I do you’ll be happy to give your ride some personal attention. I think the whole process took me about 30 to 40 minutes, because it was my first time. But it’s certainly comparable to a home hand-wash for sure. Ironically, my car is very hard to photograph for dirt — that’s why there’s no before and after. But trust me, it looked really nice and shiny when I was done. See the video on how it’s done on their site.

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Quick post about this week’s basket: The featured veggies were one rutabaga that ended up in a soup. I thought it tasted a bit strange and I’ll probably trade that away if it ever shows up in future baskets. Also, I got my share of this year’s potatoes. There were blue and red ones. Unfortunately it was a very wet growing season, my farm reported, so there weren’t that many ‘taters to be had. In any case, I ended up frying these up on the griddle as part of breakfast. Yum!

Other basket items were: Japanese eggplant, lettuce, kale, tomatoes, tomatillos (ground cherries) and bulk cayenne peppers. There are only six more baskets left this year… I can’t believe it’s almost October. But it’s not like this summer was very nice to begin with.

Ok, so I stumbled on this tutorial yesterday and I’m smitten. I totally blame the Spore Project for this bout of papery fungi.

Now, these ones here aren’t made with paper bags, as instructed in the tutorial. But sandwich-sized paper bags make big ‘shrooms. I tried with a smallish pieces of paper and these turned out very cute. They’re about 4 to 7 cm tall, made from reclaimed packing paper. This project is therapeutic and ridiculously easy… try it!

So tomorrow is Montreal’s En ville sans ma voiture (Car-free day). Whatever your opinion of this event is, you have to notice the obvious/swift marketing move by Loto-Quebec to sponsor free metro, bus and train fare for the entire day. Granted, the monetary investment in making this happen may be huge, but this does so much to advertise the new nation-wide lottery, which will go unnamed here. An unusual partnership for sure.

In any case, a free ride is a free ride — so take it while you can on September 22, 2009! Just don’t give in to the marketing and waste money on that new lottery. Click here for the direct link to the coupon, which’ll spare you from Loto-Quebec’s site. You’re welcome. But seriously, if you’re planning on visiting the Montreal downtown core tomorrow during the event it would be less frustrating to just take advantage of this free fare offer.

The vedettes of this week’s basket were French onions, Savoy cabbage, radicchio and a small bunch of radishes. The onions are quite spectacular; under the bronze skin there are two bulbs, almost reminiscent of garlic. The radicchio was very large and leafy. I wasn’t sure what it was at first. Other items from the basket included: field tomatoes, daikon and carrots. A very modest week of veg, in anticipation of the autumn harvest, as my farm reported. So… what did I make?