Food waste

[AnnaRaven]

An article in Financial Times covers how much food is wasted - most of it in households - every year. Worth reading and considering.

I know I have been guilty of tossing food, especially leftovers, in the past. I made it a priority to try to can and freeze things to avoid this. And cut down on how much I'm buying at a time of things that'll go bad. I'm also happier about our level of kitchen waste now that we've got chickens and the compost bin.

 

[me&thegals]

Ditto to everything you said Although I have to work on not letting things go to waste just cuz the chickens CAN eat it...

 

[FarmerChick]

food waster here also. shocking but I took more control of it now. it is literally money in the garbage.....so when I cook I cut back portions. We are not big on eating leftovers mostly.....so I cook smaller....but if it is something I know I can freeze easily, like spaghetti sauce wtih meatballs, I cook alot, freeze sauce and meatballs for another meal....and cook minimal spaghetti for dinner.

with wallets getting tighter, I don't waste as much

 

[savingdogs]

We cut our food waste down considerably by doing two things.

1) I package up and freeze all "leftovers"....they are repurposed as "lunches" or meals that other family members can just warm up when I don't feel up to cooking.

2) Chickens. They eat everything except moldy stuff, onions and potato skins. That cut down a LOT on the waste!

 

[moolie]

Grew up poor, with parents who grew up poor, and we weren't allowed to waste anything. We do the same, make casseroles or soups with leftovers or re-make the meal for the next time around. We also compost everything except bones and meat fat, but all of that gets cooked up into broth before we chuck it so we only throw out what we have to.

My Oma was a great lesson in not wasting anything, she only put her garbage out at the curb once a month or so, and it barely filled a paper grocery bag.

 

[Dreaming of Chickens]

We've been working on this too. Sometimes if we only have one or two servings of left overs we will freeze it and then one night when no one wants to cook we will just take a bunch of different things out had have "buffet night". That has helped to cut down on our waste. We also make up a menu before going to the grocery. First we take inventory of what we have, write down meals we can make from those items and then fill in the remaining days with items we purchase specifically for those days. Then, if we know we are having pork chops on Tuesday we try to get a pack of 6 chops, then there is no waste.

 

[TanksHill]

I'm gonna pat myself on the back for this one. I started making less food. My portions were way to huge. I make the kids plates, no waste there. I eat leftovers every day since I am home and if dh is in the office he takes them as well. Everything else goes to the dog and chickens. I would say I have very little waste.

Ok well maybe I need to start the worm farm again to eat the coffee grounds.

g

 

[k0xxx]

Most everything uneaten goes to either the chickens, the pig, or composte (and very little makes it to the composte).

Most paper and cardboard is shredded and composted. Aluminum is recycled. Unfortunately, we I have not been able to locate anywhere within a 75 miles radius to recycle glass or plastic, so they are added to the tin cans and placed out for trash pickup.

 

[Dreaming of Chickens]

We've been working on this too. Sometimes if we only have one or two servings of left overs we will freeze it and then one night when no one wants to cook we will just take a bunch of different things out had have "buffet night". That has helped to cut down on our waste. We also make up a menu before going to the grocery. First we take inventory of what we have, write down meals we can make from those items and then fill in the remaining days with items we purchase specifically for those days. Then, if we know we are having pork chops on Tuesday we try to get a pack of 6 chops, then there is no waste.

oh yeah! and we compost too.

 

[Britesea]

We don't have chickens (yet), so stuff goes to the compost heap except bones (frozen until I make stock). Meat scraps are given to the dogs. I used to have a big problem with fruits and veggies (especially stuff like cilantro) that went bad- but now with the dehydrator I can dry stuff if I know we won't eat it in time. I still occasionally find something at the back of the fridge that has gone polychromatic on us... but not nearly as often now.