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Zero-Waste Chef
No packaging. Nothing processed. No waste.

Vacaville I-80 Noah Berger AP Photo

Posted on September 6, 2020September 7, 2020by The Zero-Waste Chef
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The flames jumped I-80 in Vacaville

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The über wealthy fled to their yachts, islands or The über wealthy fled to their yachts, islands or secluded palaces when Covid hit. My daughter MK decided to go work on a small, organic farm. She cooks and helps take care of a very large flock of pastured, happy hens. Here they are at the compost pile, feasting on some prepped tomatoes overlooked in the farm’s commercial kitchen. . MK’s farm is a @WWOOF farm, although she’s an employee, not a visiting WWOOFer. The WWOOF network connects volunteers wanting to learn about organic food and self-sufficient lifestyles with small organic farms (or allotments, vineyards, gardens, woodlands...) around the world. In exchange for their work, volunteers receive food and accommodation—and they learn life-long skills! . Improving soil health and capturing emissions through sustainable and regenerative agriculture will play a huge role in tackling the climate crisis. If you’re a recent college grad who can’t find work, or you’ve dreamed of starting your own small farm or homestead, joining @WWOOF might be for you. Some WWOOFers move around to several farms to learn all they can before they start their own small farms.
Homemade wheat paste . Use this to mount posters, Homemade wheat paste . Use this to mount posters, make paper tape, cover textbooks, glue strips for papier-mâché, create collages... when Chandra worked as the matter and framer at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, he made wheat paste to hinge priceless works of art. We’ll use this small batch for a much humbler purpose—paper tape to fasten parcels I’m mailing to the winners of a book giveaway and two bread saws. . INGREDIENTS 1 cup water 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour . DIRECTIONS Add the water to the pot. Over medium-high heat, while slowly adding the flour, whisk the mixture aggressively and continuously. The paste will begin to bubble. Keep whisking. Within a couple of minutes it will thicken. Turn off the heat. . Chandra likes his wheat paste quite thick. You might want yours thinner. Remove from heat when the paste has reached the consistency you like. Store unused wheat paste in the refrigerator. . Relative to the amount of wheat paste he makes, Chandra uses a wide pot. With a shallow amount of liquid, the paste comes together quickly. He also says he can more easily get into the nooks and crannies of a wider pot. . That’s it! Easy-peasy. Have you made this? What do you use it for?
I’m honored to participate in @1millionwomen’s I’m honored to participate in @1millionwomen’s Food Waste Free October Challenge! . Sign up and each week, you’ll get low-waste recipes from @rainbownourishments, @scottgoodingproject, @simon.toohey @mmundya and me. (The pesto pizza pictured here is one of my recipes). . If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, just behind the US and China 😳 The good news is we can do something about it—we can eat all the food we buy. Sign up for the challenge in my bio.
Now’s the time to hoard tomatoes when the prices Now’s the time to hoard tomatoes when the prices have dropped. Most years, I buy a few cases at the farmers’ market to prep, preserve and enjoy throughout the winter. This year, I’ll buy fewer since my youngest fled the coop last week 😟😭 . Ideas for loads of tomatoes: 🍅 Roast them, then freeze or can them to replace tinned tomatoes (no more BPA or BPS!) 🍅 Dehydrate them, then either store whole pieces or grind the dehydrated slices into tomato powder 🍅 Fermented tomatoes tasted delicious—transform some of them into a probiotic Bloody Mary 😉 🍅 Homemade tomato paste tastes incredible 🍅 Ditto for homemade ketchup, pizza sauce and tomato sauce 🍅 Make tomato-based recipes like minestrone or tomato soup and store a bunch in the freezer for meals on busy nights . Link in profile for a bunch of tomato recipes. . Stay well and stay safe everyone! ❤️
Thank you everyone who bought tickets for the fund Thank you everyone who bought tickets for the fundraiser! I thought we might raise $500 for fire relief. We raised $1,912! I sent the funds to @cafirefound yesterday. . 🧮 You purchased 428 tickets to win one of two beautiful handmade bread saws made of untreated, reclaimed oak: 🧮 65 bought 5 for $22 = $1,430 🧮 23 bought 3 or $14 = $322 🧮 32 bought 1 for $5 = $160 🧮 TOTAL = $1,912 🤯 . I assigned a number to each ticket and then used a random number generator to pick the two winners whom I emailed yesterday. I’m sorry I didn’t email everyone a number after you purchased the tickets and then draw the numbers live on here so the winners could claim their prizes. I’ll get a plugin next time to send numbers automatically from my blog. (I have Covid-fire brain and didn’t think to do that...) . Stay safe out there everyone ✌️❤️ Thank you again!
We took advantage of slightly better smoke yesterd We took advantage of slightly better smoke yesterday morning and headed to the farmers’ market in Sunnyvale. Ordinarily, the majority of the booths line both sides of one main street. During Covid, the vendors spread out to occupy just one side each of two streets, making physical distancing quite easy. . The vendors we spoke with yesterday said the smoke is very bad on their farms. Yet the harvest must go on. . The law requires farmers to distribute protective equipment such as N-95 masks to farm workers when the air quality index exceeds 150. Many aren’t. . United Farm Workers has been distributing masks to some of these essential workers lacking protective equipment. You can donate to UFW through @ufwupdates. @unidos831 and @flowerinspanish are also raising money to support farm workers and their families. As @ufwupdates put it recently, you can’t pick strawberries working remotely. . Thank you to the farm workers for picking our food!
This was the noontime sky in the backyard in Sunny This was the noontime sky in the backyard in Sunnyvale, California yesterday. If all the orange pictures you’re scrolling through of Northern California on fire are freaking you out, you can do one thing about the climate crisis right now: Cancel your big bank credit card. Why? Because the big banks help fuel these fires. . To continue to lay siege to our planet, fossil fuel companies need cash to operate and since the Paris agreement was signed in 2016, banks around the world have poured $2.7 trillion into the fossil fuel industry according to @guardian. . Chase finances Big Oil more than any other American bank, followed by Wells Fargo, Citi and Bank of America. Every time we swipe a credit card from one of these banks, we contribute to that bank’s coffers. And if we carry a credit card balance—as nearly half of Americans now do, thanks to the Covid economic crisis—the banks rake in even more money. . When enough people break up with the big banks and make a big stink, the banks will have to change. They will lose money and more importantly, they will lose their social license to operate—society’s acceptance and approval of business as usual. At that point, business as usual ends. . If you need a new credit card, look for a credit union in your community. Member-owned, not-for-profit credit unions exist to help their members, not big business. . Stay safe out there everyone! #thistooshallpass
UPDATE 09/13/20: We raised $1,912 for fire relief! UPDATE 09/13/20: We raised $1,912 for fire relief! Thank you to everyone who entered the raffle. I’ve emailed the two winners and will send them their bread saws this week. . New blog post: California wildfire relief fundraiser! Open to both left- and right-handed US residents. . Now’s your chance to win one of two beautiful oak bread saws made from reclaimed wood and help those affected by the fires. Bread saws make quick work of crusty sourdough loaves (or any loaves for that matter). . While choosing an expensive front door for a client at a store recently, my partner Chandra noticed a discarded pallet made of untreated oak remnants. So, naturally, he asked if he could have it. . Chandra brought home the pallet, pried apart the planks of wood and proceeded to cut out, shape, and sand handles before finishing each one with a coat of beeswax. He then cut blades from a new stainless steel bandsaw blade and attached them to the handles. Chandra will flip the blade for a left-handed winner. . In the blog post, I’ve also put together a list of organizations to support and actions to take to help those affected by the California wildfires. Some of the actions: . Vote: Find all the information you need to vote at @votedotorg. Vote like our lives depend on it because they do. Vote for climate justice. Vote for a just recovery. Vote for a green new deal. . Help others vote: Because seniors make up the majority of poll workers, as a high-risk Covid demographic, they cannot safely man polling centers this election year. Due to the resulting record shortage of poll workers, we’ll face fewer polling stations, longer lines and disenfranchised voters. If you’re young and healthy, you can help save democracy—and get paid! Sign up with @powerthepolls to become a poll worker. You’ll receive training and PPE. . Get out the vote: Write to underrepresented voters to encourage them to vote. @votefwd Big Send letter writing campaign plans to send 10 million letters to voters. Have a letter writing party with your friends on Zoom 🎉 . Link in profile for the full blog post and fundraiser. Thank you from California!
Greetings from California . We are in the midst of Greetings from California . We are in the midst of another heat wave. Yesterday, San Francisco hit an unheard of high of 100°F. Sunnyvale, where I’m staying for a couple of days, reached 106°F. Just when the temperature began to drop in the evening, smoke from the fires rolled in, pushing the AQI (air quality index) to 176–unhealthy for all groups—so we couldn’t open the windows for relief from the heat. But we are very fortunate. We live far enough from the fires that our home isn’t in danger of burning down. . More fires broke out over the weekend around the state (some in Southern California) and a red flag warning is in effect in the Bay Area from 10pm tonight until 8am Wednesday morning (meaning we are at risk of more fires). Sunday night, Governor @gavinnewsom declared a state of emergency. I’m wondering when the previous state of emergency ended... Oh and fire season doesn’t start until October. How will our firefighters, already stretched thin, get any rest? . Climate change is here. It will get worse. We need a green new deal. Please vote. . Talk soon, Anne-Marie . p.s., I’m still working on the fire relief fundraiser I mentioned in my stories last week. More to come... . p.p.s., The laundry dried very quickly yesterday in this heat.
This little plant gives me a little thrill. I foun This little plant gives me a little thrill. I found a potato with some eyes sprouting and decided to let it get pretty gnarly. After about a month, when it eyes had grown into larger clumps, I cut the potato into a few pieces and planted it in this raised bed. A potato plant popped up almost immediately. This isn’t the greatest soil, so we’ll see what happens. . I plan on burying a few pieces of a chopped log in the raised bed today or tomorrow. As those decompose, they will add moisture and nutrients, while aerating the soil. . Are you planting anything for fall and if so, what?
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