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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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"The good news is that we can fix our ecological p "The good news is that we can fix our ecological problems by indulging rather than sacrificing." — Doug Tallamy @homegrownnationalpark Please join my 8-week challenge to plant natives! Do you hear the daily bad environmental news and think to yourself, “I’ve got to do something, but what?!” Entomologist Doug Tallamy wants you to plant natives (as does wildlife). Planting natives addresses the climate crisis (native plants require less water and fewer pesticides and fertilizers) while simultaneously addressing the extinction crisis (planting natives supports ecosystems and restores biodiversity). Our National Parks are too small and widespread to preserve and regenerate wildlife. Tallamy proposes we build Homegrown National Park, a grassroots effort to conserve nature by converting private yards into nature corridors. Filled with native plants, these yards will increase and reconnect wildlife habitats across the country. Every private home can participate in this extension of our National Parks. And individual homeowners need not be master gardeners to start. I’m proof of that! And if you don’t have a yard, you can help get natives in the ground in many other ways. Volunteer at a local arboretum, community garden, school garden or park. The California Native Plant Society has several positions open for volunteers or interns, for example. Your state or province likely does also. (I have a link in the challenge to a list of state and provincial native plant societies.) This week, I've been re-reading Tallamy's wonderful, NYT bestselling book, Nature's Best Hope. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It has inspired me to literally roll my sleeves up and get to work in my yard, putting in native plants to regenerate biodiversity. Link in profile for the challenge @zerowastechef.
Thank you to @sweet_sicily_restaurant in downtown Thank you to @sweet_sicily_restaurant in downtown Sunnyvale for joining @svreduces. We now have 30 BYO container friendly businesses on our list. In the first pic, Cinzia is showing off our sign in the window. The sign lets customers know they are welcome to bring their own clean containers for their orders in order to reduce single-use plastic while enjoying takeout and supporting a local small business. Other local small businesses that have joined recently include: 💫 Apna Bazar, also in Sunnyvale (the hotbar) 💫 @onepotshabushabu in Cupertino (Kevin is showing off the sign there), 💫 @danastreetroasting in Mountain View (Michael aka Shadow is doing the honors) 💫 Garden Fresh, also in Mountain View 💫 @christinescookie (incredible cookies!) in San Jose 💫 @countrysun_naturalfoods in Palo Alto Did you know that during the pandemic, takeout orders increased by 78 percent in the US, according to @upstreamsolutions? Most of those orders went out in single-use containers 😳 The good news is more and more businesses are choosing reusables, either by serving food in returnable containers, hiring third-party companies to provide reusables (and clean them), allowing customers to bring their own… The solutions are out there! Know of a business on the peninsula that should be in the list? Please let me know!
Thank you Adorable French Bakery for not only allo Thank you Adorable French Bakery for not only allowing customers to bring their own containers to your booths at the farmers' markets but for encouraging them to do so! A simple sign like this—and a business' willingness to allow BYO—can keep loads of single-use trash out of our overburdened waste streams. I took this picture at the Mountain View farmers' market. The bakery sells at several other farmers' markets in the Bay Area. Want your local businesses to allow BYO containers? Tell them! . . . . . #reusables #reducereuse #plasticwaste #oceanplastic #plasticfreeliving #plasticisfossilfuel #keepitintheground #planetorplastic #plasticpollutes #plasticpollution #breakfreefromplastic #beatplasticpollution #plasticfreeoceans #sustainablelifestyle #wastefreeliving #lesswaste #lowwaste #lowwasteliving #zerowastejourney #zerowasteliving #zerowastetips #zerowastechef #siliconvalleylife #thereisnoplanetb #climatecrisis #climateemergency #shoplocal #siliconvalleyreduces
Happy Mother's Day from me and my kombucha mother, Happy Mother's Day from me and my kombucha mother, Etheldreda. (Photobombing Bootsy also says happy Mother's Day!) To make kombucha, you need a mother (or SCOBY) to ferment sweetened tea. Etheldreda has had an interesting life. She moved in with me in the Bay Area in 2014 and has made hundreds and hundreds of baby SCOBYs since, which I've given away. She lives all over the San Francisco Bay Area and a handful of other states, including Hawaii. She lives in Ontario and Quebec in Canada (she loves Montréal!). She has moved to Argentina, Germany, Paris and Tokyo. Her proudest achievement is helping launch a kombucha company, @mountainbeekombucha, in Bangalore! Etheldreda is better traveled than I and I'm fine with that. When people visit the Bay Area and ask for a SCOBY, I give them a piece of Etheldreda to take home and I add a new pin to the map. I've been tracking her movements since she first moved here. Swipe to see the map of some of her homes.
The giveaway has now closed. Thank you to everyone The giveaway has now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered! 🌼GIVEAWAY for Mother's Day! 🌼 Win one of three copies of my book, The Zero-Waste Chef: Plant-Forward Recipes and Tips for a Sustainable Kitchen and Planet. Keep your copy for yourself or give it away to your favorite mom—or to anyone! Treat Mother Earth well by wasting less food and sending less of everything to landfill, all while eating tasty dishes. To enter (Canadian and US addresses only): ✨ follow me here ✨ tag a friend in the comments ✨ enter as many times as you'd like Bonus: ✨ share this post in a Story for an extra entry and tag me so I see it! Fine print: The giveaway closes at 11:59pm PT on Mother's Day, May 8th, 2022. I will randomly select three winners shortly afterward and contact them via Instagram. Please do not accept prize-related messages from other accounts. US winners will receive the US version of the book (the green graphic). Canadian winners will receive the Canadian version (the image). This giveaway is not associated with Instagram or Facebook.
Mother's day is the second biggest single day for Mother's day is the second biggest single day for flower sales in the US after Valentine’s day. The majority of mother's day flowers grow outside of the country. The US imports 80 percent of its cut flowers throughout the year. Colombia provides the most, at 60 percent, followed by Ecuador, at about 20 percent. Supporting farmers in impoverished regions is a good thing. But from an environmental standpoint, importing these flowers is terrible for the planet. Most imported flowers grow in soil-degrading, giant monocultures. Flowers also consume vast amounts of freshwater. The synthetic pesticides used on the blooms can harm farmworkers coming into contact with these chemicals and also people living downstream. In a paper published in the journal NeuroToxicology in 2017, researchers found that non-worker children in Ecuador experience altered short-term neurological behavior during peak pesticide spraying of the mother’s day crop. The environmental damage continues with shipping. Because the bloom of fresh flowers fades so quickly, they must arrive on our shores within days of cutting. Some travel thousands of miles by ship and some by plane in refrigerated cargo holds, burning planet-heating fossil fuels en route. After they arrive, they travel in refrigerated trucks to their next stop. In addition to the environmental issues, some of these flowers grow under questionable labor standards as well. If you'd like to give mom flowers, you can choose slow flowers—locally grown flowers from small producers, cut flowers from your garden if you grow them or a native flowering (or any) tree or perennial plant—and help her plant it. Show Mom—and Mama Earth—the love this mother's day. Link in profile for more on the flower industry and alternatives.
A few of you asked about my Earth Day setup at Sta A few of you asked about my Earth Day setup at Stanford Health Care last Friday. A generator hooked up to a solar panel (both belonging to Stanford) powered an induction cooker (belonging to me). The induction cooker is a @NuWave.Now Pico gold model and a good deal (about $120 minus a $50 rebate from my electricity provider). I like it a lot and use it every day. The generator is a Yeti 6000X from @goalzero. Six thousand is also the price tag (I had no idea…). The solar panel, from Goal Zero as well, is the Nomad 200 model. I'm not earning a commission for any of these items or trying to sell them to you! I just wanted to elaborate for those of you who had asked about this setup. Over a few hours, I cooked besan chilla, prepped kombucha, made vegetable broth and popped several batches of popcorn, all on the induction-generator-solar setup. It worked without a glitch and the food was a big hit! 🌞😎☀️ Are you electrifying your home as we get off of fossil fuels? Are you thinking of electrifying?
GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED! Thank you to all who entered! GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED! Thank you to all who entered! Win TWO sustainable lifestyle books! Two winners will each win a copy of Don't Be Trashy: A Practical Guide to Living with Less Waste and More Joy, by Tara McKenna, and a copy of The Zero-Waste Chef: Plant-Forward Recipes and Tips for a Sustainable Kitchen and Planet, by Anne-Marie Bonneau. It's the ultimate Earth Month duo to help you live lighter on this planet! To enter (Canadian and US addresses only): ✨ Follow @zerowastechef and @zero.waste.collective ✨ Tag friends below (each comment is an entry) Bonus: ✨ share this post in stories and tag @zerowastechef and @zero.waste.collective Be sure to check out Tara McKenna's blog too! www.thezerowastecollective.com Fine print: Giveaway closes at 11:59pm PST on April 23, 2022. Two winners will be selected shortly after and contacted via Instagram by @zerowastechef. Please do not accept prize-related messages from other accounts. This giveaway is not associated with Instagram or Facebook.
Today is my book's birthday! The Zero-Waste Chef b Today is my book's birthday! The Zero-Waste Chef book came out a year ago today. Thank you to everyone who bought a copy or borrowed it from the library or tagged me in your posts of my recipes. I appreciate your support! My book will help you slash food waste at home. You'll save money, harness your creativity—and eat tastier food!—reduce planet-heating emissions, save time... I can't think of a single downside to eating all the food we buy. And by default, when you reduce food waste, you reduce packaging waste because chances are you bought some of your food in packaging (but my book has tips for avoiding packaging too). Learn more about my book on my blog. Link in my stories and profile @zerowastechef #bookstagram #foodwaste #lovefoodhatewaste #zerofoodwaste #fermentedfoods #fermentation #wildfermentation #culturedfood #gutfriendly #sourdoughstarter #sourdoughdiscard #plasticisfossilfuel #planetorplastic #plasticfreeliving #breakfreefromplastic #plasticpollutes #zerowastekitchen #zerowastelifestyle #zerowastechef #sustainableliving #slowfoodmovement #slowlivingmovement #artofslowliving #noplanetb #thereisnoplanetb #climatecrisis #climateemergency
@cafevenetia on University in Palo Alto has joined @cafevenetia on University in Palo Alto has joined Silicon Valley Reduces! When customers who want to reduce waste see the @svreduces sign in the window or find Café Venetia listed on the Silicon Valley Reduces website, they know they can take their own clean mugs and containers for drinks or takeout orders without feeling awkward about asking if they're allowed to do so. The sign is like a BYO beacon. We're up to 26 businesses on the SV Reduces list so far and since I started posting about this on social media, at least five other reduces groups have started in the US, including @zerowasteithaca’s and @zerowasteindc’s. Our groups have a loosely affliliated network and meetings every other month to share ideas and information. See my blog for info on starting a similar program in your city. Let's normalize reusables!
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