Today I taught a fermentation workshop at CVSan in Castro Valley as part of the organization’s Commitment to Serve Week. The theme of the week is zero-waste. It was so much fun! (Thank you Jordan, Naomi and all the staff at CVSan.) But what does fermentation have to do with food waste? Well, I’ve decided […]
environment
How to Rescue Vegetables Past Their Prime and Avoid Food Waste
For the holidays, my younger daughter and I drove to my brother Paul’s in North Bend, Washington. At the end of our visit, before we left, I went through Paul’s refrigerator and pulled out some of the produce I had bought up there since he said he wouldn’t eat it (Paul doesn’t cook much). After […]
How to Shop and a Zero-Waste Kit Giveaway
I have not been compensated for this post. I simply like this product a lot. I live a short bike ride away from the Googleplex, in the heart of Silicon Valley. I ride past the silly looking self-driving cars nearly every day. I know more engineers than is healthy. In short, technology engulfs me. Yet, I […]
Anne Marie’s Book Club
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” ― Desiderius Erasmus I have wanted to write a post with book recommendations on the topics of simplicity and food—I cannot separate the two—since I began writing my blog. I haven’t read all the books that […]
Fermenting Versus Canning
Updated 06/11/17 fermentation noun fer·men·ta·tion \ˌfər-mən-ˈtā-shən, –ˌmen-\ “[The] process by which microbes consume sugars and produce acid, alcohol and gases.” — from The Good Gut “The transformative action of microorganisms.” — from The Art of Fermentation Often when I discuss fermentation, people say to me “Cool! I’ve always wanted to try canning.” Before I started fermenting […]
Compost for the Lazy: Throw It on the Ground
Compost can save the world! It sucks carbon dioxide out of the air and not only that, a half-inch layer of this black gold can still increase yields six years after its application. I had been composting in our community bins for nearly 10 years—and for several years before that at my house—but decided to start a rogue […]
How to Ferment Money
According to a report co-authored by researchers at Stanford, Princeton and Berkeley, Earth has entered its sixth period of mass extinction. Within just three generations, pollination by bees could be something kids only read about in textbooks (unless they live in Texas). You can read the full report here or an overview of it here. While some people may […]
Zero-Waste Menu No 2
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that transitioning to my zero-waste shopping and cooking routine took many months of reprogramming and I continue to tweak and hone the drill as new challenges come up. I had always cooked but at some point, started shopping quite a bit at Trader Joe’s, basically a giant convenience store. (I’m sorry. […]
My Transition to Full On Hippie Is Complete: Solar-Baked Kale Chips
Updated 06/19/17 I loved my Easy-Bake Oven as a little girl. Every fall when the Sears Christmas Wish Book arrived, I pored over the pages featuring the small boxes of cake mixes and circled the flavors I hoped to find under the tree. Today I shudder to think of the ingredients those little packets contained. But as […]