Every time I post pics on Instagram of my table set up for class or the food we make or short videos of my students working away, people ask me if I will do an online version. After hearing this over and over, I finally got the message and set up a new class: Fermentation […]
plastic free
A Zero-Waste Business
I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that. — Lloyd Dobler, […]
Fermentation Tools, Equipment and Ingredients
You can spend lots of money on tools and gadgets designed specifically for making fermented foods—airlocks to let gas escape from jars, lids with small “windows” you open in order to release gas, glorified glass jars rebranded as “small fermentation crocks,” expensive weights, mandolines to cut vegetables quickly and uniformly… These tools all sound nice […]
What Is Fermentation and Why Do I Go On About It So Much?
If you have read my blog at all, at some point, you may have had one of the following thoughts: Fermentation sounds revolting. Why does she keep going on about it? OMG. I love fermentation. I named my sourdough starter [insert name]. On [insert date] she turns [insert number] years old. We will throw her […]
12-Step Program to Cut Processed Food
I admit it. I love sugar. I eat less sugar than I used to but I still eat it. And although I don’t believe sugar is as addictive as cocaine, food manufacturers certainly seem addicted to the stuff—or at least to the huge profits that added sugar enables. A University of North Carolina survey found that […]
5 Ways to Persuade People to Break Free from Plastic
Perhaps you recently watched Blue Planet II and learned about the catastrophic effects of plastic pollution on our oceans and marine wildlife, you heard a story on the radio about plastic microfibers in almost all drinking water or you read today’s British report which predicts that plastic debris in the oceans will increase by threefold within the […]
9 Items I Banned from My Kitchen and How I Replaced Them
In 2011, my daughter MK and I decided we would try to live without plastic. Because I’ve been at this for a while, I take for granted many of the early changes we made back then to wean ourselves off of the stuff. But with all the welcome press lately on the plastic pollution crisis […]
Charlotte’s Granola Bars
Click here to jump to the recipe I’ve filed these granola bars under cookies and cakes in my recipe index. From Merriam-Webster cookie noun cook·ie \ ˈku̇-kē \ cookie : a small flat or slightly raised cake These are cookies. Bar cookies to be more precise. Unlike Big Food I will not market these as energy bars, meal replacements, […]
Take Your School Zero Waste in Three Steps
I recently interviewed Greg Ellis-Valencia, Executive Director of One Cool Earth, a non-profit in San Luis Obispo, California, that builds and maintains school gardens. The organization currently oversees 18 of these educational gardens. It has also worked with these schools to build the largest student-run zero-waste program in California schools. If you live outside of […]
How to Ferment Vegetables in Brine
Click here to go straight to the recipe When I prep sauerkraut, I add salt to a bowl of chopped vegetables, crush the vegetables, let them sit while they release water and then pack everything into clean jars. When I prep kimchi, I add a lot of salt to a bowl of chopped vegetables, pour […]
The Lemon Sorbet of Compromise
My daughter Charlotte started feeling sick Friday. As I left for the grocery store to fill up on supplies for my sourdough bread boot camp workshop, she asked me to bring her back sorbet, or sherbet or some other frozen dessert other than ice cream to soothe her throat. I said I would look. In […]