When Life Gives You Green Tomatoes…

I’ve been growing some veggies in raised beds in our backyard. As with most gardens, there have been hits and misses.

Among the misses, thus far, have been the tomatoes. Thanks to the elaborate bamboo (quasi-native to my backyard, unfortunately) support structure, the plants are taller than me. Yet, I’m still waiting for my first red tomato.

Well…I’m not holding my breath for one since my wife discovered that our yard is home to a squirrel with a taste for tomatoes. I keep finding half-eaten tomatoes around and that’s the worst part–he’s so wasteful with them!

My fried green tomatoesWhile I’m looking into netting and ripening them off the vine, I have plenty of green tomatoes waiting for a purpose. So I decided to make some fried green tomaters. As you can see, they worked out pretty well.

I battered them with egg, milk and breading. To get the breadcrumbs, not something I use much or keep around, I blendered some old heels of a sourdough loaf. It worked quite well. The tomatoes fried up nicely and were pretty tasty. Of course, they were about one tenth as good as a ripe, homegrown tomato. Alas…

At the end of all the dipping, I had plenty of leftover egg. I mixed the remains of the beaten egg, milk and seasoned breadcrumbs and fried it up into a sort of griddle cake. I didn’t get a picture of it because it disappeared so quickly.Next time I make eggs, I might just add some bread crumbs, salt and herbs and be totally satisfied. Then again, a little red tomato wouldn’t hurt.

July 27, 2009 | Posted in Household, Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

I’ve written about vacation rental food waste recovery (mouthful!) before, but here’s a recent news report on it (with video). This is one of my favorite ideas, as it allows families who’ve rented homes for a beach getaway to donate their vacation groceries before they leave town.photo by regenia abrabham via creative commons

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Atta boy, Texas!

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From a review of Grandma’s Country Pies and Restaurant (which I plan to visit the next time I’m near Albany):

“Would you like a roll?” we were each asked. Why, were they extra? No, but they don’t want to see them wasted, a policy we highly approved of.

This is such an underrated tactic for reducing food waste. Especially considering that once the bread basket hits the table, what’s remaining must be dumped (by health code rules). Now…whether some restaurants fudge on that is another story.
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Corvallis, Oregon’s Jamming for the Hungry rescues fruit and makes jam for donation. While it’s obviously a great idea, I can’t help wondering whether Bob Marley plays on a constant loop in their office or whether the soundtrack includes Phish and Blues Traveler.

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Finally, I try to steer clear of all things celebrity, but I can’t resist linking to this chuckle inducing rant on celebs wasting food. Given the portion sizes at many restaurants, Jessica Biel’s strategy isn’t bad…provided you take the other half home.

July 24, 2009 | Posted in Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Hunger, Restaurant, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed

The National School Waste Program

Here’s an interesting piece on waste in the National School Lunch Program. I’ve discussed school food waste before, but I find all stories on the topic fascinating.

The attention grabber is that tax payer dollars are being thrown out. Does that make it worse than when kids throw out their parents’ (also tax payers) money by tossing their veggies and fruit? Food is still being sent to the landfill, usually at an alarming rate. This 2002 piece on the topic notes that studies on school plate waste range from 10 to 35 percent.

We should all object to dumpstered food because of its significant environmental impact. Yet, the fact that free food is being wasted usually yields disapproval on economic ($600 million squandered at 12 percent waste) and cultural grounds.

The original piece raises some questions: Because these kids receive their breakfast and lunch for free, is it more frustrating that they waste a large amount of food? The implication there would be that if kids really needed the food, they would eat it all. Then again, if they ate all of their greens, they might not be kids. (…joking) 

In light of rising free lunch rolls, should there be more scrutiny on the finances of the applicants? Does the fact that the food is free impact how students perceive of it? Or is it more that the food’s quality leaves plenty to be desired?

The taste vs. health question is a hard one. There’d certainly be less waste if we served kids what tasted best to them. But I’m not sure serving Hot Cheetos would help anyone’s well-being. That’s why I don’t envy school nutritionists. Except the ones who work in Berkeley.

It’s important not to lose sight of this: it’s awesome that we can provide for those in need. And we should, because we’re a wealthy nation. There are some strategic changes we can make in how we serve lunch, perhaps. Yet, we have so much excess, we can afford to risk some waste in the name of feeding kids.

Your thoughts? And disagreeing with that last ‘graf doesn’t (necessarily) mean that you hate kids.

July 22, 2009 | Posted in History and Culture, Hunger, School | Comments closed

Guest Post: Observations on Food Waste in China

Nathalie Lussier, the Raw Foods Witch, recently returned from a four-month trip to China. I was excited when she contacted me about sharing some of her observations on food waste in the most populous nation. Here’s her report:

The “Finish Your Food Guilt” Trip

There’s a wonderful, ironic comic strip by Mike Adams that really illustrates the interesting dilemma between wasting food and overeating. One way this plays out is by guilting people into eating more than they should.

In China, meals are organized in such a way that there is less chance for overeating. In a typical Chinese meal, each person has his own individual bowl of soup or rice, and all of the main dishes like vegetables and meat are at the center of the table. Everyone has chopsticks to take some food from the shared plates. In more formal dinners, there are public chopsticks to eliminate the fear of photo by Nathalie Lussiercontaminating shared plates with germs.

This type of sharing food is useful because it encourages you to eat as much or as little as you want. There is no need to “finish your plate.” It also allows people to save all of the food later, without scraping leftovers from someone else’s plate.

Restaurant Etiquette In China

One food wasting problem I saw in China is that people order more food than the group could possibly eat so as to appear generous. In China, the concept of “giving face” requires that guests are well taken care of and well fed. This unfortunately leads to ordering way too much food, creating a lot of leftovers.

Restaurant leftovers might not seem so bad, but I noticed that most people were not interested in packing up the leftovers and bringing them home.

I asked some locals about this phenomenon and I found out that more and more people are realizing the gravity of so much wasted food. They told me that a few years ago no one even considered bringing leftovers home from the restaurant. Things are certainly changing, especially as people realize how much energy is spent bringing them this wasted food.

Read More »

July 20, 2009 | Posted in Guest Posts, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

The food waste book market is ‘hotting up.’ A book called Waste is now out in the UK. I’m excited about it and hope to get my hands on a copy soon.

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California’s East Bay MUD is the first wastewater treatment plant in the U.S. to turn post-consumer food waste into energy photo by matt hintsa via creative commonsvia Anaerobic Digestion. Pretty specific first, there! But great news, nonetheless.

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Potlucks: a great way to reduce and/or discuss food waste. My question: what’s the etiquette on taking/leaving leftovers? Do you leave them with the host or do you take what you brought?

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For those of you looking for more ways to avoid food waste, here are 20 tips.

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Finally, I would totally take part in a garbage-sorting contest. Why wasn’t composting part of it, though? (What with Seattle’s near-mandatory composting.)

July 17, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Energy, Friday Buffet, Household, International | Comments closed

Junk Food?

Starting last week, Binghamton has a new, ahem, venue for preparing and serving free lunches: a dumpster.

No, it’s doesn’t involve dumpster diving. Nor does it even resemble a dumpster. To be more descriptive, it’s a converted, nicely-appointed dumpster with recycled kitchen equipment. Waste Management cleaned up the bin (it was apparently sitting unused) and installed the used cooking gear.

Dumpster Kitchen. Image courtesy of WBMGEvery Friday this summer, area food recovery group CHOW will provide the food to serve free lunches, with Catholic Charities involved, too. (WF reader/commenter extraordinaire Dan Livingston is involved and quoted. 

My favorite part is that in addition to free lunches, there are doggy bags:

“Waste Management has also provided take-out trays, so any of the leftovers, the parents were encouraged to fill a take-out tray,” said Marsha Maroney with Catholic Charities.

I have to say: the choice of a dumpster is a bit puzzling. Then again, it seems somewhat appropriate–food that otherwise would be sent to a dumpster is instead prepared in one. Plus, it is pretty nice-looking (and reminds me of the shipping container bar in a Heineken ad).

What do you make of this? Is it insulting to those seeking a free meal? Hip re-use of old stuff? Something in between?

July 15, 2009 | Posted in Food Recovery, Hunger | Comments closed

Free Fallen Fruit

Among the originators of tree gleaning, L.A.’s Fallen Fruit have a different way of going about it. They bill themselves as an “activist art project.” The group started by mapping and gathering public fruit, “which is what we call all fruit on or overhanging public spaces such as sidewalks, streets or parking lots.”

They now have a humble goal:

We ask all of you to contribute your maps so they expand to cover the United States and then the world.

fallen fruit. photo by pinkangelbabe via creative commons.In addition to encouraging folks to map and harvest public fruit, they’re big on community-building. Part of that comes from their annual Public Fruit Jam, an event where participants bring public or home grown fruit and a jar, then leave with, you guessed it, jam.  

(Slight tangent–I couldn’t help but notice that the host of the Public Jam also holds an annual Freeze-B-Q, which puts liquid nitrogen to good use. You bring food and they blend it and freeze it into a popsicle. Would more folks eat their leftovers if they were in a lickable form? Yeah, probably not. )

Back to Fallen Fruit, the reason I’m writing about them now is that the trio have two art exhibits on in L.A. Based on the review, it sounds like the latter, Fresh ‘n Easy, is really worth checking out for you Angelinos. In addition to the photographs and Public Jam jars, the exhibit will include:

a “Public Fruit Exchange,” which implements a “barter don’t buy” ethic implicit in much of their work. On these shelves will be public fruit left by the artists which is free to be taken and in particular exchanged for other fruit that visitors to the exhibition can bring from their neighborhood.

Interesting.

July 13, 2009 | Posted in History and Culture, Tree Gleaning | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

In fruit recovery news…courtesty of veggie trader.comConcord, California’s Lemon Lady got some good press.

The Times had a solid piece on tree gleaning last month.

And I just found out about Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, which specializes in tree fruit and whose site features a neat map of fruit trees gleaned.

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Ahh…Sweden. Each apartment in a development near Stockholm has a built-in receptacle for food waste, which is then sucked through underground tubes to be composted.

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The Chicago Tribune had a useful piece (with great sources!) on cutting food costs but not the flavor. Not surprisingly, the advice included not wasting food.

Not to be outdone, the Detroit Free Press provided advice on food storage. The journalist cites America’s 96 billion pounds of waste–the most recent figure we have. Yet, that’s from 1995 data that was published in 1997. Really USDA? You can’t provide us with an update?

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Here’s a fascinating look at school lunch in Ohio, which included this line on implementing new menu items:

The bottom line for any school food is this: If kids won’t eat it, a new choice is wasted money.

it’s telling that there’s no mention of wasted food. Also, I can’t believe the tomato sauce for dipping cheese-filled breadsticks counts as a vegetable. That just about says it all.

July 10, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Friday Buffet, Household, International, School | Comments closed

Leftover Times

There was an article on leftovers in Wednesday’s New York Times. While it was exciting to see a topic I’m so fond of discussed in that venue, I thought it was…an odd piece. With questionable examples used. Cheese-revoking is bad enough, but bread stealing as retribution?!

Making a meal from scratch that’s intended to appear as if it came from leftovers = silliness. And as a few commenters noted, the title didn’t represent what the story really was about: serving leftovers to those outside the household. 

What’s clear is that the topic of leftovers is ever popular–there were 64 comments before the site closed off feedback (for some reason). As with food waste in general, everyone has a take on leftovers one way or the other.

What was your take on the article?

 

July 9, 2009 | Posted in History and Culture, Household | Comments closed

Handy and Tasty

I recently came across Still Tasty, and I give it two thumbs up. The site provides a reference for how long food will stay both safe and, yes, tasty. In doing so, it strikes a nice balance between providing official information and realism.

Their take on expiration dates is spot on. And the Keep it or Toss It? page is encyclopedic and useful, if a bit cautious (in my humble opinion).photo by cursed thing via creative commons

Yet where the site really shines is in answering those underrated questions like, Is it OK to put hot food directly into the fridge? Another one is whether or not you need to refrigerate open ketchup and mustard bottles. Answer: Heck no.

And then there’s my personal favorite: Is bottled water safe to drink after its expiration date? Two words: Hell yes.

July 8, 2009 | Posted in Food Safety, Household, Technology | Comments closed