Category Archives: Household

Monday Mold Reminder

Just because your food has a little mold on it doesn’t mean you have to throw it away. With many, but not all foods, a little scraping, spooning, facing or cutting will remove the problem. As a general rule, the softer an item, the easier it is for mold to spread. So tread lighter with […]

September 20, 2010 | Also posted in Food Safety | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Should we freeze cheese? The Kitchn is glad we asked. — — The Independent, on Lady Gaga’s dress sewed from cuts of meat: Food waste is another dimension to the media furore surrounding her outfit, although so far nobody has publicly condemned the singer for “A terrible waste of prime steak.” OK, I’ll say it: […]

September 17, 2010 | Also posted in College, Composting, Energy, General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

September is Hunger Action Month, courtesy of Feeding America. You can pledge to take action on hunger and help your local food bank win a truckload of food. — — Marin County (California) is set to go zero four percent waste. — — Speaking of zero waste, Mrs. Green over at My Zero Waste has […]

September 10, 2010 | Also posted in College, Friday Buffet, Hunger, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Old Edamame

We did a little fridge cleaning this weekend. And I unearthed this bag of frozen edamame that have been in our freezer since the Bush administration. Probably the son. Not surprisingly, they looked bad. Really bad. A few had freezer burn, many were shriveled. I reluctantly made peace with putting them out to pasture (in […]

August 30, 2010 | Also posted in Personal | Comments closed

Taking the Temperature

It’s happened again. Our British friends at WRAP released another food waste study, this time on Reducing Waste Through the Chill Chain. (Here’s the abbreviated version.) While their “chill chain” may be our cold one, the study is quite useful on either side of the Atlantic. It found that many folks’ refrigerator temperatures are often […]

August 23, 2010 | Also posted in Food Safety, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

I’ve seen refrigerator makers leverage keeping foods fresher, longer, but I’ve never seen such an overt discussion of how a fridge avoids waste (and saves bushels of cash!). — — Wait, there’s a composting operation in Las Vegas?! Things are looking up. Then again…A1 organics is generating complaints from neighbors (who moved into homes in […]

August 6, 2010 | Also posted in College, Composting, International, Trayless | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Huge news in the world of food waste: A new study out of the Univ. of Texas at Austin finds that the food America wastes represents about 2 percent of our total energy output. And, as the study’s authors note, it’s a conservative estimate because they use the 1995 estimate of 27 percent waste. New […]

July 30, 2010 | Also posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, Supermarket | Comments closed

Carrot Top Flop?

This is my first year growing carrots and I’ve been surprised by how verdant the greens have remained through the North Carolina heat. Sunday, I dug up a few carrots, leaving me with a mass of tops. Not one to casually discard anything even possibly edible, I wondered what one could do with these carrot […]

July 19, 2010 | Also posted in Personal | Comments closed

Crunchy Composting

After hearing the news that SunChips were now sold in compostable bags–sorry, “‘chip package”–I finally got a chance to inspect a bag up-close and personal. I’m not much of a chip purchaser, but I was happy to kick the tires when a bag showed up in my kitchen yesterday. My first reaction was: ‘Holy crap, […]

July 14, 2010 | Also posted in Composting, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Slate’s Green Lantern provides what I think is the best ‘tips to reduce your food waste’ piece I’ve ever seen. — — Following up on that, the Dollars and Sense blog from the San Francisco Chronicle echoed those tips. — — I think I’m in love…with my wife, of course. But Miss Almeda is really […]

July 9, 2010 | Also posted in Anaerobic Digestion, Composting, Friday Buffet | Comments closed