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Zero-Waste Basics

7 Zero-Waste Steps That Cost Zero Dollars

Posted on February 4, 2021February 4, 2021by Zero-Waste Chef

Living a lower waste lifestyle should save money, not bankrupt you. These seven zero-waste steps cost zero dollars.

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Climate Crisis
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- Homesteading

Lazy, Experimental, Give-It-a-Whirl Gardening

Posted on October 21, 2020December 29, 2020by Zero-Waste Chef

If Covid disrupted the food supply chain, imagine what more extreme weather will do. Now’s a good time to start a garden.

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Zero-Waste Basics

How to Grow Basil from Cuttings

Posted on August 15, 2017May 30, 2021by Zero-Waste Chef

basil growing in a pot

I’m so excited about this tip, I decided it deserved its own blog post, rather than just a footnote in another post (which I had originally planned to do). I buy basil often at the farmers market. When I get it home, I store the bunches in jars of water to keep them fresh. It […]

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Save a few sprigs of basil you buy and grow more.

Save a few sprigs of basil you buy and grow more.
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When I bring basil home from the farmers’ market, I store the bunches in jars of water on the kitchen counter or table, where they stay fresh for at least a week. A few years ago, one of the vendors at the market gave me a great tip: trim the ends off of the bunches first and they will sprout roots. Replant the basil and enjoy. Swipe to see some basil I did that with.
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But wait there’s more! This year, I tried this trick with basil AFTER my daughter MK had removed ALL of the leaves. I thought to myself, looking at the stems, hmmm, that’s a lot of green matter there… I must find something to do with it. So I put the stems in water about two weeks ago. Today, I noticed some roots growing! (Swipe to see those.) So I’ll replant these stripped down stems after they sprout more roots. I never would have thought to do this with the stems in the old days. After making pesto, they would have gone straight to the compost bin.
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If you don't have a yard, you can regrow basil in a pot in a sunny window and snip off what you need when you need it. By growing your own this way, you’ll avoid not only the plastic clam shells and plastic produce bags that package some basil, you won’t need so much as a seed packet. Not that there is anything wrong with seed packets! I’m just pointing out the simplicity of this method.

As the week kicks off, please remember to take tim

As the week kicks off, please remember to take time to stop and smell the flowers.
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Yesterday during a long bike ride, I stumbled upon these gorgeous wildflowers growing along Steven’s Creek Trail. How have I never seen these before? They smelled beautiful also, something like primrose. I took to my stories to ask you all what they are and several of you responded quickly.
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Their proper name is Romneya coulteri, better knows as the Matilija poppy or the fried egg poppy. Once established, they do well without water (we’re back in an extreme drought in California) and attract butterflies (we’re low on those too).
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What one thing will you do this week to stop and take in the beauty of this world?

This is stating the obvious, but preserving food r

This Friday at 2pm PT/5pm ET, I’ll be talking ab

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the US and many peo

If you live in the US, please tell your representa

Did you adopt a sourdough starter pet during quara

Did you adopt a sourdough starter pet during quarantine? Do you plan to travel soon after a year plus of lockdowns? If you can't find a sitter, you can refrigerate, freeze or dehydrate your starter. Or take it with you on your trip
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Refrigeration works well for a short trip, freezing for a longer trip and dehydration for a trip of indeterminate length. (Dehydration also serves as an insurance policy, should disaster befall your starter.)
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Swipe to see Eleanor on the train. We’ve also flown together. The first time Eleanor, Etheldreda (my SCOBY) and I flew together, I packed the girls into my checked baggage because I worried that airport security would seize my live cultures of goop but no one has ever so much as asked me about my starters. And if they did, I would say they are face masks or hair treatments. I have, after all, washed my hair with sourdough starter (dry flour works so I thought I’d try the starter…) and I do rinse my hair with kombucha vinegar. So I wouldn’t be exactly lying.

My latest batch of cultured nut cheese has bubbled

My latest batch of cultured nut cheese has bubbled to life and it tastes spectacular!
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For this batch, I soaked 2 cups of raw cashews (pieces cost less than whole cashews, so look for those) for 6 hours, drained and rinsed them, then puréed them in my food processor along with two cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup of brine with live cultures (I used half kimchi brine and half preserved lemon brine) and 1/4 cup of water. That didn't taste lemony enough, so I tossed in a small piece of preserved lemon (not even a full lemon quarter, more like 1/8). The brines contain salt so my mixture needed only a pinch of additional salt.
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I let the mixture sit in a clean jar on the counter at room temperature until it bubbled up, which took only two days. In my very cold kitchen in the winter, the fermentation takes much longer.
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After I ate quite a bit of this with sourdough crackers and sugar snap peas, I then transferred the jar to the refrigerator to grind the fermentation to a halt (almost to a halt...it will still ferment slowly in there). This also tastes fabulous on pizza.
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The flavor of changes as this continues to ferment so I recommend making small batches and eating them within a week.
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This won't last a week. I can't stop eating it…
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You can ferment other nuts or seeds as well. Cultured nuts and seeds may sound like woo-woo hippie food, but they’re nothing new. People have fermented all kinds of food for millennia.

The Canadian government this week declared “plas $The Canadian government this week declared “plastic manufactured items” toxic. This brings implementing a proposed ban of six single-use plastics closer to reality. Under Canadian environmental law, the government is obligated to take action on toxic substances. . While a step forward, the plastics ban covers a fraction of the items that constitute plastic pollution. Governments around the world must pass laws to reduce plastic pollution at the source—production—and implement reuse targets. . Source: @natobserver https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/05/13/news/canada-officially-tosses-plastic-toxic-bin$

It’s cherry season! I planted our cherry tree wh

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