Use All Your Food

When I was little I had to eat all the food on my plate. I don't think that's the best way to handle kids and food but I do believe it is in all of our best interests to not waste food.  Per the USDA, "In 2010, an estimated 133 billion pounds of food from U.S. retail food stores, restaurants, and homes—valued at approximately $161 billion—went uneaten.  Wholesome food that could have fed families in need is sent to landfills."  Per Feeding America, "Hunger in America exists for over 50 million people. That is 1 in 6 of the U.S. population – including more than 1 in 5 children."

Wasting food is also hurting our environment.  "Food is the single largest component of municipal solid waste going to landfills, accounting for over 20% by weight. Food waste quickly generates methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the United States." (USDA) In addition, think of the energy and water that is required to produce and transport the food we buy from the farm to the market to our homes. So what do we do to not waste food? 

1. Buy only what we need. It's great to buy in bulk but if it means food going to waste, then it's not worth it.
2. If we buy more than we need, share with others or give to those in need including homeless shelters and families in need. I asked my husband to pick up a bag of black beans from Smart and Final but instead of getting the 10lb. bag that I can use in a month or two, he bought the 25lb. bag!  Fortunately I have a friend who also cooks a lot of black beans, so I gave her half.
3. Use up fresh foods first.  I generally go shopping once a week. So, I try to use my fresh meats and vegetables soon after I go shopping. Then once all of those foods are used up I transition to the frozen and canned foods if needed.
4. Some vegetables can be replanted. Potatoes that have started to root can be planted in the garden to make more potatoes. The bottom parts of cabbages, leeks and lettuces can often be made to root and then can be planted to grow more. I've been experimenting with this and it works well sometimes!
5. Share prepared foods with friends if we have extra. I bought some pastries for having a friend over for coffee today and there are a lot left over, so I'm going to take them to work tomorrow, since my gluten-free family won't eat them, and neither will I (unless I get hungry at work tomorrow).

Saving Gas

We live in the foothills and have a steep road to climb to get home. My goal is two or less round trips a day - doesn't always work, but when it does I know I'm saving gas (and money) plus releasing fewer emissions into our air. I carpool with two other families which saves me three to four trips a week. I try to keep my car in good condition with oil changes and keeping my tire pressure up as well as not letting the gas go to E - these things all help with gas efficiency, too.
Hypermiling is like the frogger game - you have to look ahead to plan: if I see the light turn red I take my foot off the gas and coast to a stop. This drives some of the California drivers behind me crazy but that's okay. I tried the extreme hypermiling of putting my car into neutral to coast until my husband told me that's illegal and not safe because you don't have as much control of the car - so don't try that. My next step is to get a 21-speed bike and start working my legs up that hill. Happy driving!

Hard earned deliciousness

Made my first pumpkin pie from scratch with the first pumpkin I successfully grew - I can't remember tasting anything so delicious! It was a tiny little lop-sided pumpkin but was big enough to make two pumpkin pies. I did cheat with the pie crusts and used the frozen pie dough from Trader Joe's.

Holiday savings

The holidays are when we gather with friends and family and celebrate, and it is also a time we can be green or not.  Our family has had either a live potted tree, including a Norfolk Pine, which isn't actually a pine, or a fake tree for as many years as I can remember.  Doing this has spared us from buying cut pine trees that die once the holidays pass and then end up in a landfill. Maybe things have gotten better with cut trees though - are they getting chopped up and turned into mulch in your city? I hope so.

The fake tree we have is not the same as a real tree though, for me, because it doesn't have that special pine smell that reminds me of my childhood holidays and time around the fireplace with the family at Christmastime. So, in order to get that smell, we bring in cut sprigs of juniper, sage and rosemary from our garden and put them on the mantle or on tables around the house. I also usually buy a pine wreath to put on the front door to add that special fragrance that our fake tree just isn't providing.

What else do we do to save energy and resources? I think this goes for anything, but buying decorations that are going to last and have less impact might be more of an investment up front, but this will save resources and money in the long term by not having to buy as much. Also, use cuttings from your garden or fruits and vegetables to add color to a table centerpiece.

What else? I cringed when my grandma carefully saved wrapping paper but she was onto something. Why buy more paper, ribbon and tissue (gift wrapping tissue of course) when you can get another use or two out of what you just unwrapped. My grandma lived through the depression and I lived through the 80's - two so incredibly different times.  I guess our generation is learning that  frugality isn't just good for our personal budgets, but it is also good for the environment.  Not to speak ill of my grandma or her generation but the environment wasn't what they had in mind as far as I understand. I also cringed or cried, "Grandma!" every time she rolled down the window to throw out her trash.

Buy local

Buy local as much as possible. Join a food co-op such as Arroyo Food Co-op https://arroyofoodcoop.com/ or get a local organic farm subscription such as Muir Ranch http://www.muirranch.org/.  By doing this we support our local farmers and growers, reduce our carbon  footprint by reducing the fuel needed to transport our food, and get local delicious food while building a community.  With the Muir Ranch subscription we pick up our fruits and veggies once a week at the local high school, which is where they have their "farm".  In the photo above we have greens from our garden mixed with greens from Muir Ranch along with persimmons from Muir Ranch in the salad and butternut squash from Muir Ranch.  The brown rice and black beans I buy in bulk.

We never know what we are going to get from our subscription which is fine with me as I love to be creative with my cooking and try new things. When you buy local you end up eating seasonally which is cool because you're eating squash in the fall, melons and lots of tomatoes in the summer, broccoli in the winter, etc. I love that Muir Ranch is staffed by the students from the high school. They help plant the vegetables, water, harvest, sell and provide customer service. 

Worm work is dog's favorite entertainment

I have been composting since I was a freshman in college. My mom had a big beautiful garden when I was growing up and would show me the wiggly worms in the soil and explain how good they were for the garden. So when I moved into my own place I created a place for those wiggly worms and used the finished product for the plants in my yard.  Each time I moved I started a new compost, often bringing some of the old compost to get the new one started. When our kids were little we got them involved by having them empty the green compost bucket we keep under the sink for fruit and vegetable scraps. They actually enjoyed showing their friends the compost, worms and all. Then we got our dog Cookie who discovered that there are bigger critters that visit the compost at night and she is completely fascinated! She asks to go outside and then will stand on a stump looking up at the top of the compost for an hour sometimes. She doesn't try to catch the critters, she just stares at them if they happen to scuttle by.  The bin I have is a tall black bin with a lid but somehow the critters chewed a hole in the side so that they can get in. At first I was completely grossed out but now I think they're kind of cute. However, I am a bit worried about possible cooties from them. Anyone have any info on this? By the time the compost is finished at the bottom, are the cooties eliminated?

If you want to start a compost pile, it is super easy. Just find a sunny spot in your yard as the sun helps break down the kitchen scraps and yard waste. You can just pile everything up, or you can purchase a compost bin, or you can make one yourself from stakes and chicken wire. The purchased ones are the easiest as they generally have a door at the bottom where you can pull out the finished material that is ready to put on and around your plants in your garden. Once you've got your spot, add any sort of vegetable or fruit scraps. Egg shells and orange peels take a long time to break down, but we put them i anyways. You can also add non-glossy paper and egg cartons, or any other paper material. I even put in my shredded confidential financial papers for the worms to figure out!  Then you need to add yard waste such as grass cuttings, yard clippings and leaves. If your pile is too wet from mostly veggies and fruits then add more dry leaves, etc. If your pile is too dry from not enough wet additions, add some water. The pile should be moist but not soggy. If you get it right, it won't smell bad, but it will smell earthy. If it smells like rotting fruit and veggies then you need to add more leaves on top. Some people turn their piles and some people compress them down. I generally just pile everything on and leave it alone.  If you're just starting a new pile, you can purchase worms from a local nursery or online. Although, if it is on top of soil, worms will generally find your pile. We bought our compost bucket that we keep under the kitchen sink from Gaiam, but they have them all over the place now, including Sur la Table and Crate and Barrel. They all have charcoal filters at the top that let air in but don't let smells out.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions - I can talk about compost all day long.

Where's the Beef?

I don't eat beef and neither does my husband; not for the last 23 years. Therefore, our kids don't eat beef and never have, except for the occasional accidental beef hot dog or spaghetti they thought was turkey meat at a party, which they inevitably threw up promptly, due to the fact that they never developed the enzymes to digest the meat.  I stopped eating beef because of the health and environmental reasons, and have continued mostly because of the environmental reasons, since I am way more lax than I used to be about my health.

Grazing cows cause a huge impact on the environment for several reasons: 1) they produce huge amounts of methane gas that is not harnessed for any good purpose, not pleasant; 2) beautiful rain forests that people and animals thrive on have been cut down all over the tropics to graze cattle, only to find that the subsequent grasslands aren't sustained in that environment and die off in several years, with very little foundation for any life to flourish there, sad; and 3) the amount of energy required to obtain a gram of protein from beef is exponentially huge compared to eating rice and beans or some other complete protein that can be obtained from vegetarian or other sources, silly. Caveat: I am not a purist in any sense of the word. I gave up perfectionism a long time ago. I never stopped buying leather shoes, belts or purses (although I try to do so within reason), and I think I actually would die if I couldn't eat cheese, ice cream, yogurt, lattes, and butter. I know these things all come from cows, so this may not make sense to anyone to me, but it is one thing that I've chosen to sacrifice, like a lifelong lent, that I know I can stick with, although double doubles at In N Out or nice medium rare steaks are almost irresistible at times. As far as the cheese and other dairy products go, I try to opt for the goat or sheep variety as much as possible, as I presume those have a lighter impact on our environment. Does this make any sense? You tell me. But it's my little thing that I've been able to sustain. It drives my book club crazy but they always seem to make beef when they know I can't make it. I so appreciate that!