A very interesting article on food waste in the US appeared recently in the New York Times. It outlines the nature of the problem in this country, and the scale of the amount of wasted food is truly troubling for many reasons. The food wasted goes to landfills rather than compost bins, so it winds up taking up more space and producing methane (a green house gas) instead of feeding people, or even live stock. It seems that with all of the concern over local sustainability the best place to start looking for ways to help would be one's own kitchen.
This has really motivated me to start looking for ways to keep food out of landfills, and while I do compost, it would be fun and interesting to explore other ways to do this. I hope to start a regular posting focusing on tips that provide options for preventing food waste and using up leftovers.
My first and one of my longstanding favorites is to save veggie scraps in a zip top freezer bag. Once the bag is full I turn it into stock by putting the frozen scraps into a large stock pot and adding about 4 quarts of water, a pinch of kosher salt and any fresh herbs I have on hand. Simmer for about 10-20 minutes and drain when cooled. I freeze the stock in quart containers until I'm ready to use them, and the remaining scraps are ready to go into the compost bin!
1 comment:
Food waste is something to seriously consider. Yesterday, helping to clean up after a cook out, I shuddered a tad at all the food that the little one's left behind on their plates that had to be thrown away!
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