Twenty-Five - Bulk Buying + More Ways to Save on Food Waste

Even though Guthrie and I use the bulk bins at the co-op, we really aren't making a huge commitment to bulk buying--until now. When Guthrie and I go to the bulk bins, we almost always reach for those plastic bags and stickers or twist ties. No longer. We have been saving just about every jar that comes through our house and are using those instead for bulk buying nuts, seeds, sugar, flours, spices, tea etc. If we need stuff in bulk, we now bring in the jars, containers, jugs, etc and weigh them, mark the weight, fill and then the cashier will subtract the weight from the jar automatically.

For something we have been doing that I would like to share is for those of you who, when shopping for produce, wrap everything in a plastic bag. Guthrie and I either don't bag our produce or use reuseable mesh produce bags. 100 Days Without Oil blogger Molly Eagan puts this quite nicely:

"I think some people must think it is gross to just throw the produce into the basket and then put it directly on the belt when checking out.  OR, people think that the checkout would PREFER that you bag things.  This probably isn't the case because they have to find the sticker and count the number of items in each bag, which is more difficult when in bags. Produce certainly doesn't go directly from a plant to the grocery bin. Lets consider for a moment how many different surfaces your produce has touched before it go to you:

(1) hands picking produce at harvest
(2) hands and boxes sorting produce 
(3) hands and boxes for shipping
(4) hands and boxes for storing
(5) hands and grocery surfaces (maybe even the floor if dropped) when placing in display bins for purchasing
(6) LOTs of hands picking through produce at the store

So, maybe it isn't such a big deal if that tomato isn't wrapped in plastic to go from the bin to the checkout-and, it will save you a bag."

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Guthrie and I have made a pledge to cut down on our food waste. One of the most frustrating things for me is throwing away food that was once perfectly delicious. Composting should not give us an excuse to throw away, but is a tool to reuse our food scraps and a safeguard against wasting food, and should not be overused as a safeguard.

Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without -- is a mantra we are really trying to incorporate into our lives. Use it up is perfect in the case of food. To put this into perspective, first some facts:

Timothy Jones of the University of Arizona food loss studies says that 50% of all of the food in the United Staes is wasted. It rots in fields when prices are low, it is thrown out in supermarkets when it's past its prime, it thrown out in huge amounts from fast-food restaurants after sitting under heat lamps for too long. At home, we Americans waste on average 14% of our food. This is about $600 worth of waste per year for the average family.* It's so easy to let those leftovers go bad or to ignore those oranges that were so yummy when you first wanted them, but now aren't really what you are craving. But to save money and energy, we need to be conscious of what is in our kitchen and how we use it.
*Info from Planet Green. 

Here are some tips we are trying:

- Buying produce can be difficult when cooking for only or two. Do you really need all of the celery? That obscure salad dressing you only need for one recipe? Hit the salad bar. Buy what you need, get it weighed by the pound, and cut back on waste. (this of course is only less expensive in small quantities, but if a small quantity is what you need, it's what you should buy).

-We will start saving the trimmings from carrots, celery, green onions, corn cobs, cabbage cores, etc, and store them in the freezer in a tupperware (see left). Once we have enough, we will add them to a pot of water and make homemade vegetable broth -- something we buy often -- thus saving us money!

-bananas turning brown? throw them in the freezer for making banana bread later

-turn old bread into bread crumbs or croutons

-can't get through all of the bread? freeze parts of it right away and thaw as needed

-put greens in a vase with water instead of in the fridge -- they last longer and look pretty!

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Finally, though not related to cutting back on food waste, but related to food, I need to make a plug for the Pumphouse Creamery on 48th and Chicago! We finally went there today and it was wonderful!  They use many local and organic ingredients and the ice-cream we had today was perfect for this beautiful summer surprise of a day: pumpkin ice cream made with pumpkins from the St. Paul Farmer's Market and local apple ice-cream with caramel swirl--yum!