Herself's Recipes

Bottled water consumption has doubled since 2000.

It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil each year to create the bottles to hold all our bottled water. This is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for one year. Only 20% of water bottles are recycled in the U.S. The plastic containers are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which has been determined safe by FDA for use as food containers. Bottled water contains more antimony than tap water. The longer the water sits in a bottle the more antimony it contains. It has to do with a reaction from the container. Still it is well below safe levels.

Tap water is just as good for you as bottled water. 40% of bottled waters are just tap water with some added ingredients.If you must buy bottled water be sure to read the label.

Bottled water label items:

Artesian, ground, spring, well water: These may or may not be treated, spring is collected as it comes to the surface, the rest of these comes from wells except ground water which may be collected either way.

Distilled water: Steam from boiling water is recondensed then bottled. This kills microbes and removes minerals, but ruins the flavor of the water.

Mineral water: Ground water containing 250 ppm of dissolved solids.

Purified: Water that is free of chemicals, no more than 10 ppm of dissolved solids.

Sterile water: Free of all microbes.

Glacier water, mountain water: This has no meaning, these are just marketing terms.

Micron filtration: Water filtered through screens with small holes to filter out microbes and chemicals.

Ozonation: Water is distilled using ozone to kill microbes.

Reverse osmosis: Water is forced under pressure through membrane removing all microbes, minerals, and chemicals.

Ultraviolet light: Water is passed through uv light killing most microbes.

When the hurricanes roll into New England, tales are always told of the poor Irish running down to the beach after a storm to fetch the beached lobsters. It’s been a long time since lobsters were a poor mans food.

Indians first put lobster to use as a fertilizer in New England. Later, the colonists arrived, and they would gather the lobsters from the tidal pools. The lobsters were then made into dinner for the household children, servants and the prisoners of the local jails.

Lobsters were gathered by hand along the shorelines on New England until around 1850. Demand for lobsters began to increase and small boats known as ‘smacks’ would go out and trap the lobster. The lobsters were then brought back to the canneries along the Maine coastline. Much like tuna is today, lobster in 1936 was a cheap, canned, high protein food for the masses. Canneries wouldn’t even buy lobsters weighing less than five pounds.

In the later 1800s over fishing began to affect the canneries. Large lobsters were no longer coming in off the boats and the limit was lowered to two pounds. But in the early 1900s bringing lobster sandwiches to school was still the norm for the poor children.

Rumor has it that in 1910 John D Rockefeller Sr brought lobsters to gourmet status. The story is that a bowl of lobster stew meant for the servants table was sent to Rockefeller’s table by mistake. It was rapturously received and added to the daily menu for the family. In New York society in the early 1900s, ‘If its good enough for Rockefellar, it’s good enough for me’ was the motto.

During WWII lobsters were considered a delicacy and therefore not rationed. That’s quite a climb in social status for the critters. After WWII the boys came home from the war and America enjoyed spending its new found wealth on many things including lobster.

Since mid 1900s lobster consumption has gone from half a pound per person to one pound per person. The price has rapidly increased and fishermen have trouble bringing home lobsters over the one pound limit. Soon lobster will join much rarer dishes as trapping limits become tighter and the scarcity of lobster further increases the price.