I’ve been diligent about using cloth shopping bags for literally decades now (I bought my first cloth bag in 1988). But until recently, I rarely used cloth produce bags. I’m all for plastic bag bans, but we need to address the plastic produce bag issue—those things generate huge amounts of plastic waste. So in 2011, when […]
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Zero-Waste Bulk Shopping
Today, after going to the farmer’s market, I went shopping at Rainbow Grocery, or what I like to call Bulk Mecca. Rainbow Grocery has awesome bulk aisles. You can get everything there, including: Beans, legumes and rice of all kinds. Pasta in different shapes and varieties—semolina, corn, gluten-free, whole wheat, with eggs, without eggs. Nuts […]
Cultured Buttermilk
Another name for my blog could be “Self-Sufficiency for the Lazy.” I love to make staples myself, especially easy-to-throw-together ones. And buttermilk ranks up near the top on the easy–lazy scale. But isn’t buying it easier? I don’t know about that. It takes two minutes to start buttermilk—five if I spill something on the counter […]
Zero-Waste Vegetable Broth from Scraps
I love to make soups, but I hate to buy broth for several reasons: If you read the label of virtually any commercial broth on the shelf at the grocery store, you’ll probably find loads of salt and—depending on the brand—crud. Canned broth can expose you to the hormone-disrupting chemical BPA. Food and beverage cans […]