What do you waste?

[bixaorellana]

Are you frugal in the kitchen, figuring out how to put every scrap to use, or do you cut and discard bread crusts, only eat the white or the yolk of egg, and turn up your nose at any mold on cheese?

[Deleted]

I waste bread. There's no way I ever manage to eat the bread I have bought -- either half of the baguette turns into styrofoam, or if I have bought country bread which keeps longer, it just keeps until it grows fur and I throw it away.

Mold on cheese or on jam does not bother me at all. I just remove it.

[hwinpp]

I think we waste vegetables.
I always insist we buy more and more, then I drop out of dinner at home because I'm having dinner outside.
It actually bugs me quite a bit.

[bazfaz]

We get given these monster courgettes that people have overlooked in their vegetable garden. Well, we don't want them either. They are not wasted, they go on the compost heap.

[spindrift]

Baz - that's the best place for them

I'm trying not to waste food however I usually come unstuck on buying too much fruit and it goes off quickly. Or I might buy pre-packaged cut pineapple, for instance, and if it tastes miserable then I'll chuck it. Too many of my avocadoes are brown inside, even if I've bought them from M & S or Waitrose. I should return them instead of throwing them.

My Swiss friends don't waste anything. Any leftover melon or grapes go into a green or mixed salad. Old veggies are made into soup and a bit of pasta thrown in at the end; every scrap of their bread must be eaten no matter how hard it gets...I'm not in favour of these measures.

[Don Cuevas]

I've seen people have the mercado vendor cut of and discard broccli stems!

I waste the water in which we cook pasta. It's probably loaded with nutrients and valuable salts.

[lagatta]

Just pasta? There is not much nutritious in the water - perhaps tiny quantities of minerals in the grain, and salt added to it. It is bad to waste water in general, but in terms of wasting food, what shouldn't be wasted is water VEGETABLES are cooked in - they should go into stock.

There is not much specific I throw out or consciously waste, but living alone now I do have things go off. I do have some bread which is a bit old; must think of making it into crostini or croûtons. I hate wasting food; it is very hard not to when living alone even if one is very careful. It has turned a bit cool (high of only 20c today and GOING DOWN TO ABOUT 7-9c tonight, so I think I'll make a minestrone today; there are so many wonderful vegetables at the market right now, and I'll clean out the fridge.

spindrift, there is a lot I do make into soup, but I refuse to eat anything that has become really limp and stale: it hasn't just lost its looks and flavour but much of its nutritional value. Remember that there is a strong Calvinist streak in Switzerland (even among those who are non-religious, Catholic, Muslim or Jewish). Calvinism spread from there to Netherlands and Scotland (and some other countries). Sure, thrift is a good thing even in wealthy countries, and part of the reason the Swiss protect their environment so well and are not inclined to conspicuous consommation, even those who are very wealthy indeed. But thrift as all things in moderation, or it can make life very sad.

[palesa]

Luckily with 2 dogs in the house and a compost heap there is very little that goes to waste in my kitchen

[Deleted]

Same here palesa,even one dog,he loves stale bread and will eat at least partially anyway,limp vegetables,what he doesn't ,goes to composting.
I know I waste way too much water. Because there is so much water,it's inconceivable to me that between the rain barrel and the jugs I fill before a big rain and our water table fairly high most of the year,that we would have a shortage.
I'm sure if I had be forced to carry around what I throw away every day for a week (some schools are doing this with children for eco-awareness,it works!) I would reevaluate and take more careful measures to not waste.

[bixaorellana]

About bread -- almost any bread that is not perfectly fresh can be improved by toasting or simply heating it slightly. The bolillos here are similar to baguettes and have the same styrofoam tendency. For people living alone, I think the trick with using up bread, particularly good, country-style bread, is to let it be the "starch" in the meal. Another way of using it up is to make sure you have stuff available for a quick sandwich -- egg salad, pimento cheese, tuna fish, etc. If you come home late from work, finding decent bread and sandwich makings feels like a gift from the gods.

I tend to eat the mold on cheese, unless it's a furry mold. I find it kind of interesting.

Past-their-prime zucchini are not really food, so using them for compost is a public service. However, like HW, I feel guilty for buying produce I later throw away. Palesa is so right about dogs and compost heaps, plus it means most of your garbage is only non-stinky trash.

[Deleted]

There's also seasoned bread crumbs to be made and bread pudding is incredibly easy to make.

[palesa]

I was impressed with my household when I noticed that on garbage removal day we have 1 bag of garbage (not always full) and every other house in the street had 2 or more. We are a household of 2 adults and 1 child fulltime and another part time adult. My neighbour is a single lady and she normally has 2 or more bags.

We recycle as much as we can and waste as little as possible, but I am sure there is room for improvement.

[hwinpp]

Recycling is a religion in Germany but one I agree to follow.
I've even preserved this habit here in Phnom Penh. Except I don't have space for a compost heap.

[happytraveller]

We tend to buy too much fruit, well my husband is, I am not a great fruit eater so he usually buys a bit too much. Brown bananas are not going to be wasted, the rabbits quite enjoy them. Same with hard bread.

[traveler63]

Our big waste is veggies and salad mixings. We don't have a way to compost and since our trash pickup has gone from two days a week to one, oh boy, does it stink sometimes. We have to be careful because of the heat. So, I try to use everything I can, grind what I can down the garbage disposal, yuk! and then put as much in the freezer as I can until trash day. It took me a while, but I don't worry so much about mold on cheese, I just cut it off. ;D

[auntieannie]

I get twitchy if I know we waste... But this is minimal. Usually something that got pushed to the back of the fridge, or the huge bunch of fresh herbs that is delivered with the veggie box, unless I dry it. We have plenty of ideas to use these, but you need to eat it before 48 hours have passed. A challenge.

[Deleted]

Cleaning out the freezer this weekend I realized we waste more food than I had originally thought. The problem being ,I can't identify much of it.I know,label it. But,I never do because at the time of putting it in there ,I always tell myself ,I will remember.
I have never mastered the art of freezing food.

[bixaorellana]

If you continuously find yourself buying more produce than you can use, it would be good to find ways to cook the stuff so that it could be frozen. Even a bunch of miscellaneous vegetables -- one carrot, a couple of small potatoes, a tomato -- could be lightly cooked together in water, then put as a frozen block into a soup or stew later. Cook zucchini any way you like it, and freeze what you can't eat right away. Mince bell peppers, saute them in olive oil, then freeze them in small amounts to be used as needed.

Fruit can be made into compotes that can be frozen. Even bananas, fried in butter, sprinkled with cinnamon and frozen would be a great thing to take out of the freezer on a cold day, to re-heat and put on oatmeal.

Annie, my grandmother used to fill small prescription medicine containers with fresh herbs, packed down until there was no air in the container, then freeze them. Have you tried the way I posted elsewhere to save fresh herbs in the fridge? That will give you more than 48 hours to use them. You can also make abbreviated pestos with them. Put one or several kinds of herbs into the blender with a little cooking water from the pasta or potatoes you're fixing for supper, whirl, taste, add what you wish, then pour atop the carb dish.

[auntieannie]

I know all that, bixabella... but we don't have a freezer. at all. even the ice compartment is broken...

[bixaorellana]

Oh dear, Annie!

All of these ideas we're sharing are for everyone. Can't you use the herb ideas? The fruit compotes should last fairly well in the fridge, and since they're sweet, will probably get eaten quickly.

[lagatta]

I have almost the same problem. Tiny fridge - which is deliberate, but the ice compartment is not working well. I have found a slightly larger small fridge (a Sanyo) with a separate ice compartment, but there are other priorities (a good small portable laptop, a better mattress, a better office chair) so it could be a month or six. For the moment my herbs are growing on my balconies. I don't eat (processed) sugar*, so non-sweetened compotes do not appeal, but I'm pretty careful about buying fruit.

*I do eat the odd croissant or other thing that contains a small amount of sugar, and there are Asian sauces I use that have a bit, though I pass on the really sweet ones. More because of soft teef than anything else.

[Deleted]

Another mushy cucumber in the vegetable drawer last night. But at least it was a 'mini-cucumber' and not one of the giant ones.

[auntieannie]

there must have been a misunderstanding, Bixabella. I do enormously appreciate your advice and will do my best with it... as for the freezer ideas.... they will be implemented if/when we ever get one.

[bixaorellana]

Eh? Guess we lost the thread of what each other was saying, somewhere along the way!

You have always been one of the greatest champions of wise usage and conservation of everything.

[Deleted]

Wasted threads ,oh my!
(I was flummoxed too somewhere in there but learned some neat tricks in the process. ).