- Take more than you really need.
- Eat more than you really need.
- Get take-out and prepared food while the fresh produce in your refrigerator slowly rots.
- Forget that you left hot food cooling on a baking rack until the next morning.
- Keep lacto-fermented foods (like sauerkraut & kimchi) too long. Even in cool temperatures, the fermentation continues....too far.
- Get a refrigerator that rains inside (by converting an upright freezer to a refrigerator - not recommended!) so that you can't see what is covered up by the towels and so that can lids rust.
Once again, I see a potential advantage to our plans to try life in a fifth wheel trailer. Possessions will have to be scaled back. This will include food, and should result in less waste. In fact, I really don't recall having nearly this much food waste when we lived in a 24 foot RV for 2 1/2 years.
Back then, I actually actively reduced food waste by picking up produce discards at the store for my chickens. I'd sort through the half dozen boxes of food that no longer met Americans' expectations for picture-perfect produce. The outer lettuce leaves were indeed wilted, but the chickens still liked them and the inner leaves were often crisp and firm. While the leaves were slimy and gross, the radishes were still, like the lettuce, crispy and firm. Once the outer stalks of celery were removed, the inner ones were crunchy and ready to munch on. At least half of each bundle of cilantro could be salvaged, as could the parsley leaves.
The fruit was often bruised only in one or two spots, making it easy to cut the bad spot out and use the rest. With the quantities involved, eating them fresh wasn't an option after the first day but luckily we both came to really enjoy cooked compote mixtures. The melons usually weren't salvageable, much to the chickens' delight. They were the absolute favorite food in the hen house, followed closely by lettuce and cucumber halves.
Anything that wasn't good enough for us and the chickens didn't like went into the compost pile with the chicken droppings. At that time, we lived in a hot, dry area with only about 12" of rain per year and with temperatures hotter than Tucson's. Yet, my compost turnover time was a mere month between putting in the raw materials and producing beautiful dark rich soil.
Now I am making compost with food that I am personally responsible for wasting rather than the waste produced by the corporate food machine. Ironically, the compost I'm currently making won't even be used in my own garden since I'll be giving it and the compost bin to a friend when we sell this place and leave. Ah well, at least it's not going to be a total waste of the food.
9 comments:
This summer has been a bad one for me in the category of wasting food that I meant to . . . dehydrate, can, use up before it rotted, eat before it vanished into the back of the fridge. My compost pile is much to richly stocked. why? Erratic time demands, excessively hot summer, fatigue, and . . . apathy and laziness.
What is a fifth wheel trailer? Should I know this?
Please don't knock yourself for weak moments. You do so much more than most of us, even considering these "ooops" issues!
But, you're still way ahead of the game because you understand the steps and have been kind enough to post the signs for those that need some tickling... I'm sure the next owner will be delighted with your compost -- I know I would...
Have you considered the possibility that the middle road would be a good choice for you and your sweetie for a while. It seems like you spent most of your time, energy and even money on preparing for an apocalyptic event, in fact over preparing as evidenced by the yarn, treadle sewing machine etc. All the while you were missing LIFE. Now you talk about selling off or giving away most eveything and living in a fifth wheel. Can you find a middle road to find your way again, together, with enjoyment and real fulfilment in your lives. Becoming independent and self sufficient while still having a life to enjoy.
I wish you contentment and joy.
Candace
I agree with Candace!
I should have made plum jam, pesto and dehydrated peaches the last few days but instead I chose to go for 2 (purely for fun) bike rides, to my nephew's choir concert, breakfast with friends, to the nursery for a fall festival
and a couple of family dinners.
This morning I'll see if the plums are still any good and if not, toss them out for the squirrels, foxes or raccoons. The peaches will likely become peach butter and the basil may be compost but it sure made the house smell good the last week!
I feel that making memories is what sustains us as we get older. (oh God, I'm starting to sound like my Nanny!) Here's hoping that things will get easier soon.
Peace.
Susan - glad to know I'm not the only one. :)
A fifth wheel trailer is an RV that hooks into an oversized hitch in the back of a pick-up truck and rides along behind it as "a fifth wheel." The advantage over a regular RV is that space inside is not taken up with the driving compartment and engine. Also, since it can be unhitched, the truck is then usable as a vehicle to get places separately from the trailer.
4Bushel Farmgal - yeah, but I still hate waste, even if I can "justify" it right now.
Sharlene - I've given away so much compost over the years. *sigh* I've worked hard to build good karma and am rather unhappy life's treating me so crappy lately.
Candace - ha! You must not have been reading this blog long. We live our lives at extremes, not the middle. LOL!
Yes, I agree we over-focused on prepping, although I don't think the treadle was excessive at all. Were we staying in a house, I'd never have gotten rid of it as a means to sew without electricity is valuable and treadles are very fun to use.
We have spent considerable time talking lately about what is important to us to enjoy life now and still be somewhat prepared. For our tendency to move more often than we expect and our desire to pare down to the essentials (which also reduces living expenses), a fifth wheel will meet our needs nicely. It also opens the door to some dreams we've had in the past but didn't have the guts to try to follow. (Possibly more on that later.)
Thank you. I hope for contentment and joy, too!
DC - getting on Candace's bandwagon, eh? :)
Some of our best memories come from the times when we were living the simplest. That is what we are striving to get back to.
I am guilty also; this year with going back to school, working overtime as much as possible to pay for those things that will make my life easier (solar panels, fiber tools, etc) have made for much waste here at the Tin Foil Ranch. More than I can ever recall having, even when I had three teenagers at home. My goal is to quit thinking that it's not waste if I feed it to the chickens and to get a lot more on top of the harvest next year. Of course, I am hoping that by the time I get to next year's harvest I'm done with school for a time. I miss a clean house, and I miss having time for actual knitting and weaving.
I know No. 4 well myself. My bad!
For what it's worth, a good friend of mine has decided to start a compost container. Our city government encourages people to do this and provides containers for them to do it in with instructions. I didn't know this until she told me last week!
she doesn't hae a garden but does cook herself and we exchange herb plants every so often.
I was surprised that she was doing this and more interestingly, she told me I had plenty of room to do it, too as I could get a small container for my patio area!
I knew that but it was interesting to hear someone I know tell me all about how I could compost ...
Does this encourage anyone but me as to the possibilities of humans changing their habits? My friend does believe in climate change and in the possibility of peak oil.
peace to all,
shamba
I know that feeling. Since starting my personal zero waste challenge, I've been more cautious about food waste, but I threw out (to the city's compost) a full quart of food last week--uneaten yogurt, forgotten beans at the back of the fridge, various leftovers. At the prices we pay for our organic produce and yogurt, I might as well compost money. Then there's the carbon emissions involved in growing and transporting all that food.
But, as you once mentioned, guilt does none of us any good. Thanks for sharing this. We all need to give ourselves a little slack as we make our way on this bumpy ride to sustainable lifestyles.
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