Holiday Shopping

There aren’t many items you can buy that will reduce food waste; it’s mostly what you do. That said, here are a few useful goodies:

While a bruised banana isn’t necessarily a wasted one (it’s just the start of a smoothie or banana bread), that’s harder to pull off at work or school. That’s why I love the Banana Guard.

Meanwhile, there are now guards for other fruits that look cool. The Froot Guard is best for apples, oranges, peaches and pears. The Froot Case protects smaller items like kiwis and tangerines.

As this guide to avoiding waste in packing kids’ lunches says, reusable containers minimize paper waste and allow kids to bring home what they don’t want in a sealed container. That’s why Lunchsense lunch boxes, with their multiple containers and ice pack for freshness, are great. FYI, the medium is plenty big, even for adults.

When packing a hot lunch for one or more, the Mr. Bento Lunch Jar is a revelation. It even has a fan club, of sorts.

Books always make great presents. The Use It Up Cookbook is pretty good, but the older Use-It-Up Cookbook is probably better (albeit out of print).

Cheap. Fast. Good! isn’t a fast food guide. It’s a pretty handy cookbook whose authors are sensitive to waste.

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats won’t necessarily help you cut waste, but it will probably force you to ponder your food shopping decisions. The beautiful portraits of global families with a week’s worth of their food lends perspective on how others’ eat. It’s a great coffee table book and a real conversation starter.

What Hungry Planet does with pictures, Joel Berg’s All You Can Eat does with words. Fascinating stuff.

For those who may want to compost, but don’t want anything unsightly in their yard, the Terra composter may be a good bet. And for storing peels and rinds before they get to the bin, here’s a nice kitchen compost pail.

For those without a backyard, the NatureMill automatic composter is handy for indoor composting.

And then who doesn’t want to be the gifter of Red Wiggler Worms? Because then you can say to your loved one, ‘Remember when I gave you worms?’ Don’t forget a worm bin (although you can build your own) and possibly even a book on the subject.

Finally, they say the best things in life are free (but you can give them to the birds and bees, I need money). Along those lines, MealsMatter.org has free meal and shopping planners. Sending someone that link is like giving them cash–hundreds in the future savings from avoided food waste.

UPDATE: WF reader Dee Dee suggests and vouches for the Salad Sac as a way to keep greens and other veggies fresher, longer.

Happy ‘days!