Just the other day I did something I’m so ashamed of – I had to toss what had been perfectly good food, now spoiled, straight into the trash. This isn’t a frequent occurrence, of course, but it happens with more regularity in my house than I’d like to admit.
I’ve thought hard about how to avoid this unconscionable waste, and I realize it happens most often when my family’s plans suddenly change – e.g., I have a menu planned (and shopped for) for the week and then for some reason we can’t eat dinner at home one night, and the produce designated for that meal languishes in the crisper drawer until it’s too late for me to do something with it. And then there are the inevitable little scraps here and there that I know I ought to do something with but sometimes lack the time or imagination to tackle.
Of course, though, much this waste could be avoided if I just put my mind to it. That’s why I was so glad to come across this recent post by The Jolly Tomato, in which blogger Jeanne Fratello offers some shocking statistics on food waste in America and steps we can all take to avoid it. I’m going to try to take her challenge and see if I can cut my own family’s food waste back by 10% in the coming days.
And, by the way, Jeanne has signed on as the “dessert blogger” for the virtual Food Day progressive dinner party hosted next week by The Lunch Tray, Red, Round, or Green and Eat Dinner.org. Can’t wait!
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KL says
We’ve recently started composting. It won’t help you get rid of animal products, but it’s perfect for yellow-brown broccoli or half-eaten bananas.
Jeanne @JollyTomato says
Thanks, Bettina! Just the simple act of starting to think more about food waste has been an eye-opener for me. And it can amount to the simplest changes in behavior – like last night when the kids left a few stray grapes on their plates at dinnertime, instead of tossing them, I popped them right into the lunch boxes for the next day. When it comes to reducing our trash output, I think any amount can help!
Marci says
We have a “compost” pile that is well fed. The good news is that all the brown lettuce, rubbery carrots and moldy peaches are not going into the landfill. The bad new is that I am guilty of being a lazy composter and I have created a garbage pile. I just re-educated myself on composting and I will be raiding my neighbors’ bagged leaves to be shredded and mixed with our kitchen scraps in the coming year! Come on Autumn!
Dogs do a great job of disposing of those cooked veggie scraps – just remember that onions and grapes are bad for dogs.
Tina says
We have a fun solution for this problem – backyard chickens. I had no idea chickens would eat such a wide variety of foods. Their enclosure is right outside the kitchen door and they’ll see me inside cooking and stand at the fence waiting for treats. 🙂
Joanne Roach says
There is a public and charity funded website here in the UK with stacks of really practical ideas for using up little bits of this and that. If I have something left over which I don’t know how to use, I can usually find something here:
http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
Really understanding my freezer has made a huge difference to me. For example I freeze all bananas which have gone a bit over – broken into thirds or quarters – in a big bag, so I always have some for banana related baking or for cold smoothies. I freeze excess pesto and hummous. If I use an egg white or yolk only I freeze the other half – remember to label how many yolks or whites are in the bag though because it’s hard to tell once they are frozen – and then I can save them up till there is enough for a recipe. Odd vegetable scraps can be made into a litre of vegetable stock and frozen (no broccoli/cabbages/sprouts though or they make it a bit whiffy).
It’s a real problem, not to mention the waste the stores throw out. And while throwing out useable veggies is a real shame, throwing out animal products is a whole new level of shocking. In the UK alone we throw away the equivalent of 33 million chickens and 3 million pigs per year. Whatever your views on eating meat, you can’t help but find that degree of disrespect to the value of living creatures distasteful.
Maggie says
Food waste happens for us sometimes because of the same circumstances you mention – changes in plans, but also because I tend to plan to do too much! I trying to learn to be more realistic about allowing for the changes and alternatives if things don’t go as planned.
A resource for leftover usage, one of my favorite cookbooks – “More-with-Less Cookbook” by Doris Janzen Longacre –
ends each chapter with a segment titled “gather up the fragments” with ideas for using leftovers and a listing of other recipes that could make use of leftovers.
There are also 2 other similar books – “Extending the Table” by Joetta Handrich Schlabach and “Simply in Season” by Mary Beth Lind and CAthleen Hockman-Wert. All three focus on simple, whole foods and respect for food. I do want to note – the books are commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee, so there is commentary about views of that faith in the introductory sections and in the commentary with the recipes.
Bri says
The freezer stock bag has really helped me to start getting a handle on this — it’s absolutely true that vegetables which are slightly past their prime, but not downright spoiled, are perfect for stock. (And I actually DO use broccoli stems and so forth in my stock, but not in large quantities.) Likewise the trimmings that I’d ordinarily discard. Otherwise, those little odds and ends are great for things like a roasted vegetable mish-mash with a poached egg on top; or for “hakuna frittata;” or for a stir-fry or pasta toss. One thing I think we all forget is that when it doesn’t seem like there’s “enough” of one item to justify saving it, we could always combine that item with a few other things to make up a whole serving of fruit or veg for a lunchbox. Four grapes + half an apple + six measly melon balls = fruit salad. Sometimes we just don’t see it that way. I’m as guilty as anyone!
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Oh, how I love TLT readers for always coming through with excellent ideas and tips. We’ve been talking for a long time about composting here in the TLT household but I’ve been viewing it solely from a gardening perspective, not a waste-reduction method. I certainly would feel better about throwing out the brown lettuce if I knew it were feeding our soil. I love Bri’s freezer stock bag idea and I’m going to check out the UK site Joanne recommended and Maggie’s books as well. The only thing we can’t do is the chickens, Tina. Sadly, we don’t have a backyard (when prior owners re-did our 1938-era house, they went right to the lot line) and the neighbors might protest a chicken coop on our lawn. 🙂
Tina says
Boo, hiss! Oh, well. Chickens are a lot of fun. We have 4 right now, but the legal limit in our city is 5 hens. We also have a worm bin in our basement. It’s simply a rubbermaid container with holes poked in it to allow ventilation and drainage. Worm castings are black gold for a garden.
lindtfree says
My husband and I share our home with two companion rabbits, and unfortunately we still waste some produce! Not all the vegetables we eat are good for rabbits (such as onions and garlic), and even rabbits can be picky about their greens: once I bought Swiss chard especially for our first, VERY spoiled rabbit, and she, normally a ravenous eater, wouldn’t taste it. In addition, we have adopted and/or fostered eight rabbits to date, and only one of them has really liked spinach.
To avoid wasting produce, sometimes it is best to shop at stores that allow you to buy only the amount you need. My husband and I enjoy eating asparagus on occasion, but neither rabbit likes it. When we purchase asparagus at a warehouse-style grocery store that prices most vegetables by the bunch, sometimes half of it goes to waste. The food co-op and “gourmet” grocery store sell most vegetables by weight, therefore we can limit our purchase to the 8-12 asparagus spears we need. Ultimately it’s less expensive to buy produce this way, since wasted food is also wasted money.
Two other simple lessons I’ve learned about wasting food:
1.) When a food has a very limited refrigerator life, don’t buy it until the day you plan to cook it. NO EXCEPTIONS.
2.) If I don’t eat leftovers within 48 hours of when they were originally served, I’ll probably never eat them. Knowing this, I usually bring leftovers to work and eat them for lunch the next day.
And finally, one of my mother’s rules:
“Don’t buy it just because it’s on sale” isn’t limited to clothes. If a grocery item isn’t something you’d buy without a coupon, chances are you don’t really want or need it, and won’t use it. We regularly purchase store brands to save money, but almost never use coupons.
Bettina Elias Siegel says
Love all this advice, especially rule #2. If I get on leftovers quickly, I’m so glad to have them in the fridge. Thank you for the comment!