October is a world wide focus on not wasting so much food and we have some easy tips for you.
First steps are always the hardest but trust us it gets easier. We’ve included a few of our favorite tips and tricks for reducing your personal food waste. At the bottom of the blog you can find links to learn more about food waste, the consequences of not changing our habits, and other people and organizations working on this problem.
Let's start with garden guilt. When our garden dreams in the spring are bigger than our stomachs and when fall rolls around and food rots on the vine or languishes in the back of the fridge. Our gardens were just too big. But the problem is even bigger than that. Beyond our kitchen garden waste 1 in 5 grocery bags of food is wasted; thrown into a landfill. It’s a massive problem both in terms of economics but also for the health of our planet. If food waste were a country it would be ranked third in terms of CO2 emissions. This is such a huge and pervasive problem that it's hard to even wrap your head around the numbers, the sheer quantities, the mountains of wasted food. But as with all problems, little first steps add up to huge change when we all work together.
Food Scrap Stock: this is a simple and tasty trick to make great homemade soups, stews, and risottos. Keep a mason jar or bag in the freezer. Every time you have scraps from cooking: carrot ends, squash tops, onion bits, tomato ends etc.. add it to the freezer bag. When the bag is full it's time to make stock. Get out the slower cooker and add your scrap bag, a hunk of seaweed (we recommend sugar kelp or oarweed), and your favorite blend of spices and some water. Let it simmer for at least a few hours but the longer the better. If you want a meat stock then save your chicken, ham, or beef bones or lobster shells and add them in as well. When the stock looks and tastes good, chill it, strain it and turn it into your favorite comforting soup or stew. If you're not feeling like soup then freeze the stock. A friend of mine just gave me an awesome tip for this. Pour your stock into a freezer or silicone freezer bag. Close it tightly and freeze it flat on a baking tray. When it is frozen solid you end up with a little sliver of stock that takes up hardly any room in your freezer!!!! For more details check out our blog Easy Peasy Soup Stock.
Too Much Garden Produce Freezer Meals: Ready to go homemade freezer meals are a mainstay in our house in the winter. They are the perfect way to make sure that we use everything in the garden and are eating lots of vegetables all year long. The three I make every year are vegetable lasagna (which is awesome cause you can use extra tomatoes by making the sauce yourself and an overabundance of eggs by making homemade noodles), chicken pot pie, and shepherds pie. The key to all of these meals is they start with roasted vegetables. I throw everything that is ready to be picked onto baking trays and roast away. You can add in summer squash, carrots, beets, potatoes, beans, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, winter squash, eggplant, and tomatoes or whatever combination is ripe. Even if you don’t have a garden but bought too much at the farmers market or have a CSA box that you can’t finish, this is the perfect way to make sure that nothing goes to waste and you're eating well in the winter. My pro tip is freeze everything!!! Do you have too many peas, beans, carrots, kale...you name it. Blanch it, spread it on a baking tray and freeze it. When it's solid, scoop it up and put it in a freezer bag then any time you need some veggies you just have to reach in and grab the perfect amount for any meal. Spice up eggs with some frozen kale and corn, make your soups swoon worthy by adding in all your summer veggie favorites. Veggies are expensive in the winter here in Maine and come from far away. By freezing my garden I am able to eat well and eat locally all year long. We have LOTS of recipes on our blogs including Zucchini Tots.
Cheese Bin: This is a trick that Claire learned from watching a Jamie Oliver program. Keep a bag or jar in the freezer where you can stash ends of cheese. Many households end up buying too much cheese and it molds. Especially if you are single, buying the right quantity of food is super hard and lots goes to waste. The cheese bin means that all your cheese gets used. Use the harder cheeses for soup stocks or save up until you have enough to make a bomber mac and cheese. Freezing cheeses can affect the texture of some types of cheese so it is best to make something where the texture doesn’t matter.
Cupboard Crisp/Veggie Baking: Yesterday both Claire and I ended up making an apple dessert. The really good farm stand apples we had bought a week ago weren’t so crisp anymore and we only had a few left. Instead of chucking them in the bin Claire made a small apple crisp and I made an apple cake. Everything got used, nothing was wasted, and we got a tasty dessert. Another great way to use up extra fruit that is a little past its prime to is make and then freeze fruit desserts. That way you don't feel like you have to eat a whole pie, crisp or cake. Freeze individual desserts like hand pies, slices of cake, or turnovers, which means you can always have the perfect portion of dessert. Another great dessert trick is to make desserts using vegetables. In Maine, it's much much easier to grow vegetables than fruit. We always have too much summer squash, carrots and beets. All of these make fabulous desserts, cakes, cupcakes, even frosting. The best part is that all these desserts freeze great too!!! Here's the link for our beet and seaweed cupcake recipe.
Don’t Follow the Recipe: The last tip is that recipes should just be a guideline. Sure for baking you should take less liberties since it is a science but everything else; change it up. If you have more veggies then add more veggies. If you have one ingredient but not the other substitute instead of a shopping trip. Get creative and use what you have. Especially these days when going to the grocery store is a scary ordeal you really don’t need that special ingredient.
To learn more check out the following:
What a long strange trip it's been lately with the Covid-19 virus, stay at home orders and a whole lot of stress.
But somehow life still goes on and it's the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Our original plan was to do some trash picking up, a recycle drop off, community connections and prizes. Instead we are offering Earth Day Bingo.
Earth Day Bingo is fun, creative and you can win prizes while making connections. Plus you can help out small businesses. Each square is open ended and allows for creativity. Everyone's situation is different. At first, I had "take a walk" but realized not everyone was living the rural life. If you are in a city taking a walk is so different than my reality. We share big ideas and common feelings but each of us has our own reality.
There are nine squares to fill in. The center- Planet Earth is the free square.
The most important square is Be Registered to VOTE. Each state differs but don't wait if you are not registered. A great site for info is The Environmental Voter Project.
Donate- donate time, blood, money, items. There are so many community and grass root initiatives that it can be hard to choose. Here in Maine since the outbreak of Covid-19 and the lack of PPE safety equipement a drive was created to sew fabric masks for essential workers in retirement homes, public safety, grocery stores and more. Check out Sewing Masks for Maine.
Shop Small- this is more important now than ever. If you value community, innovation and just plain old spunk please use some of your purchasing power to support small businesses. Green America has a great blog about the power of voting with your money.
Plant Something- focus on a bit of green. Start some seedlings. Repot a house plant. Get some seeds sprouting in the kitchen.
Make Less Trash- This might be the hardest square to fill in during the quarantine because it's so limiting what you can purchase at the store for food. One big change for me was to shop from our local farm and buying my milk in glass jars.
Notice Nature- If you are stuck inside look out your window- chances are a bird is tweeting. If you are lucky enough to walk or hike safely be grateful- nature is a gift to treasure.
Repair or mend- clothes, furniture, a relationship..... Our recent blog The Joys of Slow Stitching has ideas for using a needle, sewing or knitting to help reduce Covid stress.
Share an Eco Tip- we'd love to hear about your experience with zero waste, being mindful, voting with your money and any tips or strategies to help make staying home a community and growing experience.
We are offering prizes! 3 in a row gives you a code for $5 off our website. You can only use the code one time per order. If you fill the cardin share with us to be entered into our Eco Extravaganza Bundle- cool stuff from our downeast shop which is currently closed.
Come on and play some bingo!
Going Zero Waste during any holiday is tricky but Halloween is especially challenging. The fun quickly turns into trash.
Here are some simple tricks to help reduce waste but don't procrastinate, DIY takes time.
COSTUMES-
DECORATIONS
This is the easy part. Fall is the harvest season filled with natural beauty. Pumpkins, corn stalks, gourds. If you want a bit more, invest in quality items including wreaths, bunting and treat bags that can be used for years. My best advice is to have a Halloween box filled with reusable decorations, favorite books and most importantly memories.
TRICK OR TREATS
It's helpful to limit the number of houses you visit. Planning an after party can help with the transition. The after event can be a special video or family game with a big bowl of popcorn and fresh cider. Instead of playing "Old Maid" switch it up to a Halloween theme. Have your family make the cards together. A fun memory is to use old Halloween photos for the pairs. Yes, this takes time but if you have your Halloween box it's worth it and your deck can grow each year.
REFUSE
Simply refuse some items including all cheap plastic ones that have an interest span of seconds but a life span of centuries.
Pass out natural items. A bowl of polished stones, rocks or shells is exciting. Coloring sheets, puzzles or candy packaged in cardboard including Dots or boxes of raisins.
You need to start early for your DIY Zero Waste Halloween celebration. It takes time to collect materials and craft. You might also need time to set and manage your children's expectations.
Let's take the truly scary out of Halloween- the trash and still have fun.
