To Microwave or Not to Microwave...

That is the question we’re now faced with after the ol’ microwave gave up the ghost today. Just a few years ago I would have just tossed it and rushed out to buy another…replace, upgrade, replace, upgrade…afterall, that’s just what we did. Not now though. We’re kind of thinking:

• do we really need a microwave if we just plan a bit better eg: defrost food the day before it’s needed
• do we really need an electricity-dependent microwave, when we already have a regular oven, a Sun Oven and a BBQ…three items most of the world still does without – sure a microwave oven works on rainy days when the solar cooker doesn’t…but the normal oven & bbq are all weather
• is it environmentally and socially responsible to buy another one when we don’t really need it
• If we pay to replace the microwave, it means diverting money from tools we’d really like:  a manual cream separator and hand butter churn…tools that will make us even more self sufficient, tools that we’ll be able to hand down to our children….can’t see them wanting or needing an “obsolesence built in” 2010 microwave oven!…but hey, butter churns might return to cool by 2030!  :D 
• and what could we do with the bench space the microwave is vacating? The extra space would definitely make goats milk soap and lip balm making a whole lot less squeezy!

…and that’s before we even think about the possible health issues surrounding microwave ovens. On the USFDA’s website they actually state: “Controlled, long-term studies involving large numbers of people have not been conducted to assess the impact of low level microwave energy on humans.” And then there are a number of people like Graeme Sait of Nutri-tech Solutions who believe food prepared in a microwave oven just isn’t doing us any good…let alone the use of plastic containers in microwave ovens used to reheat food.

hmmm….I think I’ve just convinced myself! Sounds like we’ll try going without the microwave oven for a month and see what happens…it’s hardly groundbreaking stuff (there’s a gazillion people out there who have never owned a microwave or already given theirs up), but it’s funny the “things” we begin to believe are indispensable.

So..how to reheat food for a late arriving partner? A covered plate over some simmering water should do the trick and still keep the dinner moist, or like Mum used to do in the old days…keep it in the still warm oven. Or better yet…eat at the same time