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Zero-Waste Chef
No packaging. Nothing processed. No waste.

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Posted on March 23, 2014by The Zero-Waste Chef
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Instagram post 2153921208604128937_533634447 Don’t you love decluttering? . Letting this vintage cast-iron Dutch oven go this morning was a bit painful but I don’t use it and it takes up a lot of space. We posted it on @offerup Friday and received an offer for it the next day. Kirk here says he only cooks in cast iron so I know the pot went to a good home. I don’t need three Dutch ovens. I’m down to two now—one large, one small—which I use constantly. (By the way, this is not a sponsored post. I just happen to like the app.) . Swipe to see the grain mill I also unloaded this weekend—one of three grain mills that had been taking up space in my small kitchen. That went immediately, within an hour of posting. I didn’t charge Elena for it because it needs a bolt (she should be able to easily find the right size). Elena said her mother taught her to use this kind of grain mill in Mexico when she was seven years old. She’ll use it to grind corn for tortillas, tamales, masa dough and so on. She also wants to teach her teenagers how to use it (so important!). So the grain mill also went to a good home and will be well-loved. . Our society reached peak stuff long ago. From thrift shops to Buy Nothing groups to community swaps to Nextdoor to estate sales to even the side of the road (it’s unbelievable what I find that way), someone no doubt has what you want and would love to unload it. . Link in profile for some questions to ask yourself before buying new and some pics of stuff I wanted and eventually found secondhand.
Instagram post 2153192451907796895_533634447 Bulk Japanese green sencha tea: $1.50 . Last month a study out of McGill University in Montréal found that “fancy” silken teabags can shed billions of pieces of microplastic into a cup of tea. The good news is that these plastic tea bags are easily avoidable. Buy looseleaf tea. Place spoonful in infuser (or tea pot). Set infuser in hot water (or hot water in tea pot). Steep. Drink. . Just a theory... I believe these synthetic, silky pyramid-shaped tea bags came about as a way for manufacturers to add perceived value to a simple commodity for which they can charge only so much. "Ohhh silky!" they must have hoped consumers would say. "I am happy to pay a premium for this [supposedly] upscale teabag!" . I looked up the price of an average brand of silky teabags. They cost $0.675 each. So for my $1.50, I could buy 2.2 of those and consume billions of bits of plastic per 2.2 cups or enjoy over 10 cups of tea made with just looseleaf tea like god intended (I use a tablespoon at most of tea and this jar contains over 10). . Depending on where you start your zero-waste, or low-waste, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it journey—eating lots of packaged foods and take-out versus eating lentils and vegetables you buy at a discount grocery store—reducing your waste can greatly reduce your expenses. Unless you’re buying all kinds of fancy gear you don’t actually need, which is a rant for another day.
Instagram post 2152428624748497000_533634447 I cooked a small pie pumpkin for homemade purée and roasted the seeds for a snack. Delicious! . 3/4 cup pumpkin seeds 1 tablespoon olive oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon homemade chili powder 1/4 teaspoon garlic granules . Remove pulp from seeds (don’t worry about getting it all off). Pat seeds dry. Toss in olive oil and seasoning. Roast 350F for 15 minutes. Stir. Roast for another 5 to 10 minutes until golden and crunchy. Store in a glass jar if you have any left to store. . I use a cast-iron pan for this because I can clean it in about two minutes if it’s extra crusty. One minute if it isn’t. Just scrape up the baked-on bits and scrub a little with a cloth or brush and some water. If something can be roasted or baked in cast iron, I will choose cast iron. I bake shepherd’s pies in it, pot pies, fruit pies, galettes (fruit or savory), vegetables...all sorts of food. . Link in profile to 18 low-waste Thanksgiving tips for my Canadian followers this weekend and for my American followers who want to think ahead. Like all things zero-waste, a big meal requires some planning but not that much.
Instagram post 2151017936650125707_533634447 Update on our rent a fork endeavor. To paraphrase Thomas Edison, we have not failed. We just found one way that won’t work. . Only one person rented a fork at the farmers’ market and he didn’t return it. But that’s okay. We learned some things: . 1. We need to have a separate table from our produce bag giveaway. People almost stampede our table to get their bags and the forks can’t compete with all the bag excitement. . 2. We need to set up that second table with the forks closer to the prepared foods area where people queuing up for their food will see us. Here Cecilia and Louise are walking around the food stalls looking for takers. (They are fearless!) . 3. We need new signs. Maybe “borrow a fork” so shoppers realize we aren’t actually charging money, just lending reusable items for a refundable deposit. If we wanted to make money here in the heart of Silicon Valley, renting forks would not be the way to do it. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if some startup comes along and turns our rent a fork idea into a subscription service or app or both and gets gazillions of dollars in funding. . 4. We need a better way to ensure we get the forks back. Our lone customer may have returned after we had left the farmers’ market (it was really hot Saturday!). Thrift shop forks don’t cost much so replacing my pilfered fork won’t exactly break the bank. . When we started our produce bag project, after our first sewing session, I wondered how we could make that work but we did. We can make the utensil lending work also. Failure is just one step closer to success 😉
Instagram post 2150244417183946886_533634447 This week’s farmers’ market haul. . I did most of my shopping on Saturday before our big upcycled produce bag giveaway—we needed a couple of bags filled with fresh vegetables for merchandising—even bag giveaways can use some marketing. (See yesterday’s post for how we did at our giveaway.) . I predict ratatouille in our future this week, vegetable fritters, and lots of sautéed Swiss chard. The fennel fronds went into pesto last night and I’ll roast the bulb and stalks today. . Yes, the bunches of chard and cilantro have twist ties holding them together 😱 Twist ties come in handy to close up cloth produce bags in the freezer. Once they wear out, I strip off the paper and if it’s clean, put that in recycling and hang on to the metal for metal recycling. Once every year or two, I drop this stash of metal off at the recycling depot (I can’t put it directly in our bins). Swipe to see a few pieces of twist tie metal. I don’t expect people to go this far. I just like to show you what I do on here, especially since I regularly get questions about what to do with twist ties. . I think that if you have reduced your waste to the point at which twist ties are your biggest zero-waste dilemma, then you can buy all the chard you want guilt-free. Actually, buy all the chard you want guilt-free regardless, as long as you eat it all 😉 #mytwocents
Instagram post 2149620806236527471_533634447 We were mobbed at the farmers’ market on Saturday. In 45 minutes, we handed out 506 upcycled cloth produce bags that we made from donated, unwanted fabric and sheets. . To date, we have given away 2,463 free produce bags. These bags last for years. I still use the ones my daughter MK and I sewed in 2011. If shoppers use each of these 2,463 bags just once a week for a year, the cloth bags will replace 128,076 plastic bags (2,463 x 52). . At the end of our first sewing session in early 2018, we had made only a handful of bags to give away. I remember asking “How are we ever going to do this?!” We kept getting together and trying different production methods and now we are a well-oiled produce bag making machine. . So if you want to steal this idea (please do), here are a few tips. Keep in mind that you need only a couple of people to get started. If only one of you knows how to sew, the other can cut. And when you get together, cut a pile at once to speed up the line. You can give your bags to friends and family or get them out in the community. Contact your farmers’ market about setting up a table or contact a local store about setting up a bin in the store for the bags. . Link in profile for more on the bag project, including the very basic pattern.
Instagram post 2147430804752784721_533634447 Rent a fork! . Tomorrow, our bag sewing circle will hand out 500 of our upcycled cloth produce bags made from your donated fabric at the Sunnyvale Farmers’ Market at 10am. . I’ll also bring my community cutlery collection. For a 25 cent deposit, shoppers can borrow real utensils for their delicious to-go lunch that they buy from one of the the many booths selling prepared foods. Upon returning the dirty utensils to us, they will get back their deposit. I figure (hope) that with that nominal charge, fewer people will walk off with my forks, knives and spoons. . I’ve been collecting utensils for a few years for this community cutlery collection. I have over 100 pieces now. People have donated utensils and I’ve bought others at thrift shops for next to nothing. . Even if only a few people take us up on our fork rental tomorrow, the sign and the utensils, like the cloth produce bags (which are wildly popular!), will help spark conversations on plastic pollution. When people stop to think about plastic waste and see such simple swaps, they realize that a better way is not all that difficult. . See you tomorrow!
Instagram post 2145858380164880800_533634447 The only trick to making really good kombucha is finding a SCOBY, or symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, to ferment the sweetened tea. Once you have that, if you can brew a pot of tea, then you can make kombucha. . You may be able to find a free SCOBY in your Buy Nothing group, Nextdoor, Craigslist or other similar online marketplaces. People are happy to unload them, as they reproduce almost like tribbles. . If you can’t find one, you can try growing one. Pour a couple of inches of good, raw kombucha into a jar. Cover it with a cloth secured tightly around the jar so no flies or dirt find their way in. Within a couple of weeks, you should see a thin film forming on the top of the kombucha. When the SCOBY has thickened a bit (a few millimeters should do the trick), use it to brew your kombucha. . I adopted my scoby five years ago. Her name is Etheldreda. I’ve been handing out SCOBYs ever since and keep track of where Etheldreda has moved to on a Google map (swipe to see her travels). She has taken up residence in many cities here in the San Francisco Bay Area and also in Hawaii, Canada, Argentina, France, Germany, India and Japan. . I can’t mail these out—it’s a big, expensive hassle—but if you find yourself in the Bay Area and would like a SCOBY, please ping me and I’ll give you one. And if you already have one of my SCOBYs (I’ve given away at least 200) and have shared with someone living outside of your city, please let me know so I can add another pin to my map. Thank you!
Instagram post 2145208010136807364_533634447 I have a theory based on absolutely no data, just my gut, that fresh herbs go to waste more than other produce. . Recipes will call for 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro or even just a tablespoon of chopped parsley, leaving you with a giant bunch of herbs, not to mention stems that, while you try to think of something to do with it all, wilts and rots, sending you spiraling into a bout of food waste guilt and despair. . Here is one easy way to eat all the herbs: after adding that small amount to whatever you’re cooking, purée what’s left into a dip immediately, before you have a chance to put the herbs back in the refrigerator where they may meet an ill-fated end. . I made this cilantro chutney Sunday night for samosa-inspired hand pies. Last night, we ate more of it with vegetable pancakes. So good! Here is the recipe: . 2 cups packed cilantro leaves and stems, chopped 2 large cloves garlic 2 serrano or jalapeño peppers 2 tablespoons lime or lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon sugar . Whir this up for a long time in a food processor or blender until you have a somewhat smooth sauce. Adjust to taste. Store in a jar in the refrigerator. . Cilantro stems work just as well as the leaves. I trim off the bottom centimeter or so because the ends usually look a bit sad. . My daughter swears by parsley tea for her stomach and cilantro tea for her complexion. I have no idea if either one really works or if they simply have a woo-woo placebo effect but tea is always a good idea in my book regardless of whether it does anything other than soothe you. Use parsley stems for the tea, as those taste stronger than the leaves, so you won’t want to put them in just anything. . Throw herbs into your scrap vegetable stash in the freezer—not too many because they can overpower the flavor of your vegetable stock. . For excess parsley or oregano or mint or whatever, whir a combo of leaves up with olive oil, garlic, salt and red wine vinegar for an herb sauce for bread or rice or roasted vegetables or just about anything. . Make pesto with basil. It also freezes well. . Those are just some ideas I can contain within my character count on here. Please share yours!
Instagram post 2144514794882110823_533634447 My daughter MK sent me pics from an art installation she saw yesterday while visiting @thetorontozoo. (She moved back to Canada this fall for a post-graduate program in waste management.) . The jellyfish and marlin sculptures (swipe to the end) from the Washed Ashore project are composed entirely of garbage collected from beaches. The project has create 60 works of art from over 18 tons of trash picked up by volunteers. . As the Toronto Zoo website states, “Every piece of plastic was once purchased by someone, discarded, became waterborne, and landed on a beach where someone else picked it up and made a difference. Please Remember Every Action Counts!” . Link in profile for 50 ways to kick plastic.

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