Friday Buffet

Here’s the Complete Guide to Freezing Just About Everything, courtesy of Coupon Kim. Thanks, Kim.

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The owners of the Green Cafe in suburban Philadelphia will be feeding the restaurant’s food scraps to their rescued animals. Check this out:

Leftover food scraps regularly become meals for the mustangs, zony (a zebra-pony hybrid), goats and other creatures that reside across the street. photo courtesy of drexel universityThey were rescued by the cafe owners, who have operated Moore’s Home for Wayward Farm Animals for 42 years.

A zony?! I guess that’s like a Liger, which is pretty much my favorite animal.

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The Miami Herald doles out advice on avoiding waste during hurricane season. Yet, it’s a useful read for anyone with a supply of emergency food. And I don’t mean your stockpile of Snickers.

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Sounds more like advocacy than a science project, but it’s my kind of advocacy!

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Finally, a Baltimore artist has taken a non-traditional look at food and waste. Never has there been a more important ‘and’ on this site.

May 29, 2009 | Posted in Friday Buffet, Household, Restaurant | Comments closed

Brunchy Buns

A few days ago, I tweeted about having extra hamburger buns. It’s a common problem, as you can only really get packaged buns in packs of eight.

Now, you can avoid this problem by buying higher-end, buns individually or even baking your own. But I like those cheap-o, white bread burger buns. I’m really just looking for something to hold the burger together and stay out of the way, taste-wise. Hence, six buns remained after my wife and I had our burgers.

Anyway, thanks to my buddy the Eco-Chef, I knew what came next: French Toast buns. As I previously wrote, the Eco-Chef transforms yesterday’s burger buns into today’s French toast at The Sunny Side Cafe, adding orange juice to spruce it up.

For my spicing up, I went with the always pleasing banana/cinnamon/walnut combination. It really came together. Then again, you could probably dip your computer monitor in egg, grill it in butter and it’d taste half-way decent.

Unlike the Eco-Chef, who sacrifices a bit of the buns’ tops and bottoms to make them more bread-like, I just dipped away. I’m happy to report that the crust browned just fine. And while my garnishing game needs a little work, I now have a perfect morning-after solution for cookout remains.

Have a look:

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

Gallery Now Open

Pass the cheese, help yourself to some wine…it’s time for the opening of the second exhibit in the Wasted Food Gallery.

photo by j-No via creative commonsThis exhibit comes to us from the camera of “Secret Freegan,” a Phoenix resident who dumpster dives and donates her findings to the hungry. You can view Secret Freegan’s photos via the Gallery tab, which is always atop the site.

Oh, and once you’re in the mood, you may want to catch a British take on the same activity–“Skipping.” The gent in the video explains how he gets his daily eats from supermarket “skips.” Stay tuned to hear about his quaffable “Holy Grail” of dumpster diving. If only he could have saved the beverages for this gallery opening…

May 26, 2009 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Might we see curbside food waste collection in Ohio? Some towns near Columbus are considering it.

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A Little Caesars franchisee in Florida recently started donating all unsold pizzas to a United Way soup kitchen. Never having lived in a Little Caesar’s state (despite enduring their ads), I couldn’t imagine why they had so much excess until I saw this photo. And while it’s happy news from Florida, think of what’s happening in many other places: photo by willie lunchmeat via creatvie commons

Little Caesars had been routinely throwing out food because it was considered wasted after 30 minutes, Rettig said. 

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I guess the editors at The News-Press, of Fort Meyers, had food waste on their minds.

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Here’s an idea for a fridge that would reduce waste and enable composting. I don’t quite get how it helps you see what’s in it (wouldn’t clear doors be better?) but having a compost bin right in your kitchen would be handy. Anyway, it’s a neat idea.

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I enjoyed this headline. Encouraging tray news abounds.

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Finally, here are some tips about fridge and freezer use that could ultimately prevent food from experiencing a premature demise.

May 22, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Household, Restaurant, Trayless | Comments closed

Ample Harvest? Pass Some Along

Gary Oppenheimer is an avid gardener. A master gardener, in fact.

When Gary became director of the West Milford (NJ) Community Garden, he found that others left a lot of produce on the vines. He created a committee, called Ample Harvest, to find food pantries to which they could donate this healthy excess. It turned out they couldn’t find any. And when Gary searched himself, the closest one he found was 25 miles away, he told me in a recent phone interview.

That’s when he realized:

The pantries are not listed any place. They don’t have an internet presence. That’s when I had an epiphany in early March, saying, what we need is a nationwide directory of food pantries.

And today, with the launch of Ample Harvest, Gary is approaching that goal. He’s touched on an photo by bloomgal via creative commonsunderrated problem in the food recovery world. How can individuals or institutions donate fresh food when they don’t know where to bring it?

Ample Harvest was created to solve that problem by providing an easy way for backyard gardeners to find  the food pantries closest to their home. It’s a neat idea. Because not only do pantries need more donations to meet their increased demand, but they also need fresh produce to provide healthy meals to those who don’t get enough nourishment.

This is one of those sites that will work better with more users. So, as the site advises:

If no food pantries in your area are listed, you can help the AmpleHarvest.org campaign by seeking one out and encouraging them to sign up.

Some pantries won’t take loose produce, so be sure to ask if they will when contacting them. Still, it’s definitely worth the effort. I’ve just contacted a few local pantries to try to get them to register. Hopefully you’ll do the same and spread the word about Ample Harvest. Let’s make this work!image courtesy of Ample Harvest

May 20, 2009 | Posted in Food Recovery, Garden, Hunger | Comments closed

Life to Leftovers

In a recent post, I put out a call for suggestions on what to do with some leftover cheese spread. Your ideas came pouring back, much to my benefit.

On the heels of that fruitful exercise, I thought it’d be fun to start a recurring feature that lets readers help other readers give new life to their leftovers. Hence, “Life to Leftovers.” You send in your pleas for help (with a photo, if possible) and I’ll post them. Send your ideas to wasted food at gmail dot com.

We’ll start off easy. Leigh (aka Calimama) from Compact By Design wrote in with this question:

I have a can of white cake icing in my fridge.  We don’t do a lot of super sweet desserts and I don’t bake. We tend not to keep cake and such around. 

photo by Zack Sheppard via creative commonsThe icing itself is pretty much a container of sugar.  Delicious in that “I love sugar” kid mentality but not something I need to be taking spoonfuls of.  So, I would make a box mix, but then it would sit here.  And I’d feel guilty if I didn’t eat it.  And I’d feel guilty if my husband did.  And my toddler would be more squirrely than he already is.

Of course, I could make a cake and take it somewhere.  Although most of my friends wouldn’t be terribly thrilled with that delivery, for all the same reasons.  I was just curious what ideas someone would come up with for such an odd item just taking up space in the fridge. Hate to throw it out but what to do?

OK, so we’re looking for a non-cake use for icing. And for those of you with minds more savory than sweet, Leigh has another query:

I also have some freezer-burned chicken. I have 3 chicken strips with pretty bad burn (2 days in uncovered) and 2 huge boneless breasts with mild burn.  I know, I did it again. I am so ashamed I can hardly admit it.  I should spend all my kitchen time sleeping and then these things
won’t happen.

Freezer-burned chicken, anyone?

 

May 18, 2009 | Posted in Life to Leftovers | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s a story on the lifecycle environmental impact of one manufacturer’s heat-and-eat chili. Very interesting stuff, especially the trade off between packaging waste and food loss.photo by Hiiiii MY NAME IS BRAAAAAAAAK

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The San Jose Hazmat team was called in to handle the stench from an office fridge. Seven were sent to the hospital. Just a sad day for food waste.

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The 2010 Vancouver Olympic folks plan to divert almost 90 percent of the Games’ waste from landfills. Now they’re just trying to figure out how to do so. But they can take heart from the news that the 2006 Turin Games produced 90 percent less organic waste than the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

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I just heard an interesting detail from Luther College’s traylessness, which began in January: They replaced trays with larger plates, to prevent some complaints and allow space to rest a bowl. I like the second part.

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Finally, here are some inspiring words from Growing Power’s Will Allen on how we change our broken agriculture system.

May 15, 2009 | Posted in Events, Farm, Friday Buffet, International, Trayless | Comments closed

Ugliness Is Only Skin Deep

We’ve all seen food that looks down on its luck. It may be bruised, gashed, moldy, soft, wilty or some other adjective.

No matter how bad it appears, I try to cut away the offending parts to salvage what I can. I’m sure many of you do the same. If you don’t, here’s proof that you should:

Before

This red bliss potato has a nice gash in it.

Before 

After

By trimming away just a centimeter under the rough part, you might be surprised to find that it’s fine. Magic.

After

I’m curious: Have you noticed any fruits or vegetables that are particularly ugly on the outside and beautiful on the inside? Personally, I think plantains take the cake. The ripe (maduro) ones look like hell…but taste like heaven.

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Two housekeeping items: You may have noticed there was no post on Tuesday. It wasn’t due to my long-held grudge against that day, but because I’m moving to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule for the time being. With the book, the baby and the blog, there are only so many hours…

Also, I’m hoping to have a new “exhibit” in the “gallery” tab soon. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but I think you’ll find the photos interesting.

May 13, 2009 | Posted in Household | Comments closed

The few, the proud, the Bagel Brigade

Every army needs a Bagel Brigade. Not like the rag-tag bunch pictured, but more like this.
illustration by nemo's great uncle, via creative commons

Saturday, NPR’s Weekend Edition profiled the Los Angeles non-profit whose raisin d’etre is redistributing bagels and day-old bread to those in need.

The piece had one tidbit on food recovery that I have never encountered: drivers making unauthorized donations “on the sly.”

Like the Senior Gleaners, the average Bagel Brigade enlistee is in his or her 70s. Which makes it all the more amazing that they do what they do:

For the last seventeen years, 88-year-old Herman Berman’s days have begun at dawn.

I’m not sure what’s more unbelievable, Herman’s name or his dedication. If that doesn’t inspire you on a Monday, not sure what will…

May 11, 2009 | Posted in Food Recovery | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s a wasted food first: linking to a sermon. This post from The Middletown Eye has an engaging sermon that touches on excess food and the Food Not Bombs controversy in Middletown, Conn.

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Norcal Waste Systems is now Recology. Cool site, but we’d prefer more composting.

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Swine flu fears lead to slaughter of Egyptian hogs. Wait I thought pork was OK to eat? Plus, who’s going to eat the Egyptian food scraps now? Religion, public health and refuse merge into one heck of a story here. 

Can this be true?

An estimated quarter of a million people in Cairo, primarily poor Christians, make their living from garbage collecting and raising pigs in city slums.

image courtesy of uh...bob via creative commons— —

I just learned that soul food abhors waste. Hey, so do I! Maybe that’s why I love soul food…

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I thought you should know that they just broke ground on the Wilmington (Del.) Organic Recycling Center. When completed, it will be the biggest composting facility on the East Coast.

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Finally, this item sums up how much of a consumer culture American civilization is (was?).

 

 

May 8, 2009 | Posted in Composting, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, International | Comments closed