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Zero-Waste Chef

Vacaville I-80 Noah Berger AP Photo

Posted on September 6, 2020September 7, 2020by Anne-Marie Bonneau
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The flames jumped I-80 in Vacaville

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On Sunday, I attended a garden share event at Char On Sunday, I attended a garden share event at Charles Street Gardens, a community garden in my city. People brought all kinds of food, plant cuttings and seeds from their gardens to share. I brought home a PEACH TREE! On my bike! It's a sapling and I rode slowly. I've planted some of the cuttings and seeds I brought home. Today, I'll transplant the tree. If you want to garden but don't have a space for it, contact your city and inquire about community gardens. Look for a @slowfoodusa or @slowfood_international chapter in your city also. You'll likely find some avid gardeners and also food events to help foster independence from Big Food. Get your garden fix, grow some food, meet nice people and build community.
Want to opt out of receiving gifts? Have some conv Want to opt out of receiving gifts? Have some conversations now before your family and friends start shopping. When people ask me what I find to be the most difficult part of living a simple life with less, I say other people's expectations. People often want to give me stuff I don't want or need—especially at the holidays. If you'd like to receive less stuff this year, these ideas can help. They won't work on everyone all the time but even if a couple of people fufill your request for no gifts, you'll have less stuff to deal with, less stress and more joy this holiday season. And they probably will as well. Have you been able to convince others to buy you less or no stuff at the holidays? What worked for you?
I hope you’re all having a good weekend and can I hope you’re all having a good weekend and can relax a bit. I make things to relax. I find it meditative and it gets me away from my screens. Lately, I've been having too much fun making seed packets to fill and give away over the holidays. I've collected seeds from basil, nasturtiums, green onions and matilija poppies (swipe to see these magnificent poppies blooming this past spring). Total cost: $0. I've also saved seeds from my absolute favorite squash that I buy at the farmers' market: honeynut squash. You can thank @chefdanbarber at Blue Hill Farm for the existence of these wonderful squash. Giving a plant breeder a kitchen tour in 2009, Barber held up a butternut squash and asked, “If you’re such a good breeder, why don’t you make this thing taste good? Why don’t you shrink the thing?!” I peel and slice these sweet, rich and creamy squash lengthwise, toss them in olive oil, sprinkle them with minced garlic, salt and cumin seed or thyme or rosemary and roast until fairly caramelized. I made the seed packets out of paper salvaged from the recycling bin and used wheat paste to glue them together and add ransom notes. If you're looking for an alternative to plastic tape for gift wrapping, craft paper tape by brushing easy-to-make homemade wheat paste onto strips of paper. It looks appealing and costs basically nothing. If you want a gluten-free version, try tapioca starch. See @zerowastechef profile to grab the wheat paste and paper tape instructions. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Today is America Recycles Day. We all should recy Today is America Recycles Day. We all should recycle what we can—as a last resort and not the first line of defense. The polluting companies that created Keep America Beautiful and later dreamt up America Recycles Day promote recycling as the ONLY solution to our garbage crisis. For decades, plastic polluters have pushed the onus of cleaning up their garbage onto us, consumers, so they can continue to profit from trashing the planet. They're like a surly child who manages to convince you that your refusal to pick up their smelly socks off the living room floor is a moral failing on your part. There is some good news. A groundbreaking plastic-reduction initiative that will appear on the 2022 ballot in California would force manufacturers to pay a 1-cent tax on every item wrapped in single-use plastic. The money raised would pay for recycling and composting programs and for restoration projects like beach cleanups. As the fifth largest economy in the world, what happens in California doesn’t stay in California. Initiatives like this spread. Of course, Big Plastic and Big Oil will spend obscene amounts of money in an attempt to defeat the ballot initiative. But if it passes... we'd see companies address their overpackaging.
Don’t ask, don’t get. The day after Hallowee Don’t ask, don’t get. The day after Halloween, I requested unwanted pumpkins from my neighbors on Nextdoor. Neither my tummy nor my compost bins can get enough. I've had trouble keeping up with the response! These pumpkins—some carved, some whole—came from only two homes and many more pumpkins await pickup. I'll cook the smaller whole pumpkins in my pressure cooker, purée the flesh and freeze it. After I smash them up a bit, a couple of the carved ones will go straight into the bottom of the raised beds seen here behind them. (The raised beds were also free! Thank you very much @satbarisisters 🙏❤️) Large pumpkins are too stringy and watery for pie but fine for soup. Someone either here or on my Facebook page said they substitute them for water in their bread and pizza dough. Genius! It's not too late to ask for unwanted pumpkins in your neighborhood. Whole pumpkins can keep for many weeks. Try Nextdoor or your Buy Nothing Group.
Over 100 world leaders have pledged at COP26 to en Over 100 world leaders have pledged at COP26 to end deforestation by 2030. Clearing forests to produce food and agriculture products is the biggest driver of tropical deforestation. Unfortunately, the conference does not include a day devoted to food and agriculture, one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases (nearly a quarter globally, according to the EPA). @guardian has excellent live coverage of COP26. Just some announcements so far: Ecuador will massively expand its protected marine reserve around the Galápagos Islands. The US will rejoin the High Ambition Coalition of developed and developing countries to keep global heating at 1.5°C. The US has also pledged to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030. The coverage I've been reading has reported on a greater sense of urgency at this year’s conference, that this COP26 feels different. We have to keep the pressure on our leaders to ensure it IS different—that they deliver on their pledges.
Easy Multigrain Bread with Sourdough Discard Sunf Easy Multigrain Bread with Sourdough Discard Sunflower seeds, flax seeds and poppy seeds I had on hand, along with a cup of old-fashioned rolled oats, rendered the grainy crumb of this multigrain bread. Other seeds to choose from: sesame seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, caraway seeds or flax seeds. Because those last two impart stronger flavors, you need only small amounts of them—a few tablespoons of either one will do. While this recipe helps clear out a few random seeds from the pantry, it also puts a 1½ cup-size dent in your sourdough discard jar. I almost always have a full jar of sourdough discard on hand—I get a bit nervous when it runs low as I can revive a spoonful back to a bubbly state should anything happen to my starter, Eleanor. But I don’t want to accumulate an unmanageable amount of discard. So I make crackers, pancakes, pizza, tortillas, chocolate cake, this bread... By eating all of the food we have on hand—in this case, random seeds and sourdough discard—we help keep food out of landfill where, packed tightly and cut off of oxygen, anaerobic bacteria break it down and emit methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide. Baking bread also eliminates the plastic bread bags of store-bought loaves, which, like all plastic, are made predominantly of fossil fuels. (Some bakeries will allow you to buy fresh bread using your own reusable cloth bag 🙌) Regardless of any environmental benefits, you’ll want to bake this bread simply for the taste. Recipe on my blog!
I'll start with the bad news… According to Wast I'll start with the bad news… According to Waste Dive, in the US every Halloween, 1.3 billion pounds of uneaten pumpkins are condemned to landfill, where they emit methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. Landfilling pumpkins wastes not only the food itself but all the resources that went into growing those gorgeous gourds—water, energy, land, labor, capital and inputs such as fertilizers. The good news is that we have so many available solutions to stop this seasonal food waste. We can eat the pumpkins (depending…don’t eat rotting pumpkins!), give them away to someone who will eat them, feed them to animals in the yard, a farm or zoo, compost them, look for local pumpkin dropoffs—and more. Link in profile for more and seven pumpkin recipes that put pumpkins in tummies, not trash.
Woot woot! A wonderful testimonial for Silicon Val Woot woot! A wonderful testimonial for Silicon Valley Reduces, a new BYO initiative a small group of us are launching here to normalize reusables. A simple sign in the window of BYO-friendly businesses lets customers know they can bring their own containers for filling their orders. "Thanks to both of you, our family enjoyed a wonderful takeout dinner this evening from China Wok—in our own containers!! During the pandemic we wanted to support local restaurants but hated the idea of single use containers. With your new program we were encouraged to order from China Wok, conveniently located in our neighborhood. Great food, great service and no qualms at all about our containers. Win win! Thank you SO, SO much! This is a wonderful resource." — Kim J I also tested the new program out last week and ordered (and devoured) samosas—all in the name of research!—using my own containers, from The Gurkha Kitchen in Sunnyvale. The staff even used my small round containers for accompanying sauces, no questions asked. If you own or work for a BYO-friendly restaurant/café/bulk store/refillery in Silicon Valley and would like to participate, please let me know.
Plastic has never been only about straws. Plastic Plastic has never been only about straws. Plastic contributes the climate crisis. According to a recent report from Beyond Plastics, in the US, emissions generated from plastic all along 10 stages of its lifecycle—extraction of fossil fuels, transportation, production, chemical recycling, waste incineration and so on—will exceed the emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2030. Big Oil is losing money on coal and electric vehicles, so it's ramping up plastic production. Swipe for actions to take!
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