Food waste Friday

Filed in Blog by on May 1, 2009 13 Comments
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green-potatoes-food-wasteJust a quick post from me today. It’s Beltane; one of my favourite days of the year and very special to me for a myriad of reasons. Ok, so perhaps I shouldn’t be celebrating until the full moon, but hey; I’ll celebrate twice!

I fully intend to throw myself head first into making merry, making fires and … well, anything else that cares to grace my path.

Food waste for this week amounts to two green potatoes found lurking in the bottom of the veg box.

I’d forgotten how a couple of degrees increase in temperature can turn those pesky tubers a paler shade of green. I need to remember to only buy what I can use in a week from now on until my own potatoes are ready for harvesting.

Off to the compost pile they went, where they will no doubt sprout and with the most Beltane-like of energy reproduce like rabbits.

What about you? How much food waste did you create this week? Don’t forget, if you blog about your food waste, be sure to pop over to the lovely Kristen’s Frugal Girl website and share your news with her funky Mr Linky gizmo thingie where you’ll get added to her blogroll for a week.

That’s it from me; I’m off to weave flowers through my hair and dance around Mr Green’s maypole.

About the Author ()

I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Comments (13)

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  1. John Costigane says:

    Food waste is always there to some extent. Mrs Green. My minimal amounts consists of the lining of used eggs, leftover or discarded cooked fat, microscopic pot/plate scraping and seeds.

    The Bokashi can easily deal with this material, with all fruit/veg in the compost bin. A clean landfill bin has no smell or health hazard.

  2. Poppy says:

    No waste here this week Mrs G. Pooch and her feline friends polish off most waste and anything else goes to our feathered visitors to the bird table or to the compost bin. Last week they had a mound of chopped up spaghetti to munch their way through. I don’t normally buy it as DH has an unreasonable and completely illogical aversion to it, but junior wanted some to slurrrrrp, so I relented and bought a pack of fresh. It was huuuuge! Next time I relent, it will be dried or nothing.

  3. Carole says:

    Hmmm, no food waste here that my Bokashi can’t deal with. Nothing is left on my boys’ plates that’s for sure. I have got something different(not particularly ecological, but interesting) planned for very early Sunday morning. I’ll tell you all about it next week!

    Carole

  4. No food waste here this week, all fruit and veg peelings go into the compost bin and like Carole I have clean plates from my hollw legged sons.

  5. sandy says:

    My chicken house has arrived, we have spent the morning putting it together, so from next week not much waste, between the dog and chicken that should account for eveerything

  6. dottyspots says:

    Definetely celebrate twice 🙂

    Unfortunately I had to throw away some Chinese takeaway (blush), but the containers they come in are really handy and, some soup, which erm, wasn’t very nice…

    Generally everything is eaten here as i have the same as Carole and Maisie (hollow-legged sons).

  7. my fine feathered fowl dispose of the disposal with the efficiency of clucking technology. be it bacon fat or dead spaghetti, they never fail to reward us with golden eggs.

    when my sons left home, i had to become a week-long left-over artist to resorb the excess food which i had cooked on week-ends. i since have morphed into a seasoned warmer upper for small amounts of a multitude of mix and match ingredients.

    with a few errors i have learned what can endure the confines of glass jars and how far to stuff them in the fridge. it is all empirical, eat and learn, food love ns

  8. VegBoxClara says:

    Only a tiny bit of food waste here, Mrs G, and that went into the compost. Tops off two carrots. Tough old leek leaves. Woody calabrese stem. That’s it. This is much better than usual for us. I think what helped was that we bought much less than usual, so we had to be creative to get meals out of what we had. We enjoyed everything and no horrible moving stuff from fridge or fruit bowl straight to compost!

  9. Mrs Green says:

    @John Costigane: what’s the lining of used eggs?? It sounds like the bokashi and compost system works well for you. How long does it take you to fill the bokashi?

    @Poppy: Spaghetti LOL! It’s a shame they come in huge packs, isn’t it? I buy LMG tins of spag bol from lidls – one tin is a good meal; maybe you would consider that for odd occasions if no one else really eats it? Not the most nutritious of meals, but it’s ok for a quick throw-it-in night 🙂

    @Carole: Glad the bokashi is working out and now I’m intrigued. I’m not good at containing my curiosity!

    @maisie dalziel: Goodness me – everyone is doing so well with their food waste this week. Perhaps I should hand over the running of the site to you lot LOL!

    @sandy: Hi Sandy; how exciting to have the chicken house arrive. We even toyed with the idea of chickens this weekend as I was lamenting over the idea of home lain eggs. DO keep us posted on your progress!

    @dottyspots: Hi Dottyspots; I’m beginning to see a theme; perhaps LMG needs a hollow legged brother 😀 That’s probably a bit drastic though!!

    @nadine sellers: Loving that description of food waste in your world, Nadine. It sounds like you and your feathered friends make a fine job of preserving the planet from harm 🙂

    @VegBoxClara: Well I don’t call that food waste, Clara; I call it peelings and quite right – into the compost they go. (although I’m rather partial to the broccoli stems myself)
    The idea of buying less really works. I like to challenge myself to that from time to time, or using things from the cupboards and eeking out the fresh stuff. Well done on a successful week 🙂

  10. John Costigane says:

    Hi Mrs Green,

    The lining of the inner egg surface can be carefully peeled off from raw or cooked eggs. It is a very thin membrane which hold the shell in place.

    I add to the Bokashi every 2-3 weeks with a single layer of waste, then bran. At that rate it maybe takes 6 months to fill. You can obviously add a lot of waste with just one bran layer. That was my initial experience but waste amounts are minute now and I do not want to keep waste in the freezer for too long.

  11. Carole says:

    I add to my bokashi every couple of days with a bran layer on top. Having two (sometimes three) boys here and my fiance visiting once or twice a week and it all adds up.

    Carole

  12. Mrs Green says:

    @John Costigane: Ahh, I see. I just put the lot in the compost bin, although perhaps I shouldn’t.

    @Carole: It seems you’ve settled into a good rhythm with your bokashi bin now, Carole – that’s great!

  13. John Costigane says:

    @Mrs Green: Mrs Green, the amounts are minute so a composter could deal with this waste. I simply remove the membranes as they can be processed in the Bokashi. The shell’s calcium carbonate mineral reduces the soil acidity which has some benefit.

    The liquid fat waste can be formed into a ball with seeds for winter bird feed. I will try this in future for the smaller garden birds which seem to be thinner these days.

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