Bluemoon wrote:All waste cooked food which can't be used by us later, goes to the dogs, waste, uncooked veg goes to the rabbit and the resultant rabbit poo goes in the compost bins, anything which is beyond even the rabbit goes straight into the compost. Chicken bones, which can't be eaten by the dogs, are about the only thing which might find its way into our dustbin, but they're used to make stock first.
Might I suggest you get yourself a Bokashi bin system - bones, cooked food, fish, etc can all go in! When our pet rats died last year I realised that we had small amounts of cooked food leftover & the ocassional bones, neither of which the dog could eat (he's an ancient lurcher with a dodgy belly!) and the rats were useful for this, so then my bin was starting to smell. I hate waste of any sort so after some research realised that the Bokashi system was ideal for us. And as I produce vast amounts of onion peelings, which the compost isn't too keen on, these go in too
I used to be guilty of chucking stuff out...but with the rising prices of food I have a new respect for the stuff. Nothing gets chucked out now. Any scraps get used in a stew or sarnies. I buy reduced food and freeze it, or use it in other stuff - got a load of reduced sausages the other day and made a sausage casserole so tasty my fiancee is demanding I make it again soon!
Had a bbq at a friend's the other day. Usually I would just leave whatever food I brought, but there were 4 burgers left over that I brought with me and I knew my friend wouldn't eat them. So I asked if I could have them back if she wouldn't eat them. They're going in a hamburger casserole tonight. I was strangely proud of myself for having saved those from the bin.
Radio programme today, LBC? One of their reporters is doing a bit on 'Freegans' . The reporter is living for a week with a man who has been a freegan for 20 years. Lots of discussion coming in on food in supermarket skips. They say that good food with OK sell by dates can be found, often items packed in bundles will be thrown away because one of the bundle was damaged. Lots of tins, damaged or no lables etc.
A tip from a caller said to call into a supermarket a couple of hours before closing to get food marked down by as much as 90% if it is not sold it goes into the bins/skips, his wife works for Tescos. Programme will be running for a while.
I guess a Freegan is the most 'Selfsuffientish' person out there?
jondy wrote:
I guess a Freegan is the most 'Selfsuffientish' person out there?
John
Well... I think most freegans rely on the highly commercial, consumerist, disposable culture... I don't think that is self-sufficient. But then everyone is self-sufficient-ish, to a certain degree.
Ann Pan
"Some days you're the dog,
some days you're the lamp-post"
There was a family of Freegans of Wife Swap (my secret trashy TV shame ). Everything they ate was salvaged from the big metal bins out the back of supermarkets. They actually seemed to have quite a nice diet.
I've had last nights macaroni cheese for lunch today. There's nothing better then last nights leftovers for lunch. It's like they've been marinated and they taste better then when they were fresh. Mmmm.
I wonder if people chuck food out and rely on use by dates because they don't trust their own knowledge of food or their own ability to tell if something is off or not.
Curry is ALWAYS better the next day I always make a big big vat of vegan curry up (I have a huge black cooking pot, like my personal cauldren!) intending to eat one portion then freeze the rest. I usually end up eating it 3 days in a row & freezing less than I intended though!!
Mmmmm, I got a bag of organic Jersey spud yesterday in Sainsburys - marked down from £3.99 to 99p! - I think a spinach, potato & kidney bean curry is called for tonight. And rest of the week!
we always try to plan what we are going to eat over the next 4-5 days and buy what we need for those meals, and I never go shopping without a shopping list and really try to stick to the list :)
also, a good tip is to not go shopping when you are hungry as you are likely to buy too much!
also, i know it's been mentioned before, but a bokashi bin is absolutely fantastic, you can keep it in the kitchen as it doesn't smell and it's easy to use.
My garden loves both the liquid it gives off and the compost it makes.
being away from Marmite land, visiting friends would always bring marmite for the nippers mainly. I have quite literally kilos of the stuff, some of it two years past eat by date. Some of it open for well over a year, and we still have it on toast from time to time, no ill effects...
anyone know what can go wrong with Marmite?
Same with Colman's mustard flour, impossible to get in this region, a kind friend bought catering size tins of the stuff and others kindly send standard tins, all of it now years past best before date, and all fine (so far).
anyone know what can go wrong with mustard flour?
I remember hearing a Lee and Perrins Worcester Sauce 'person' on the radio, when asked why worcester sauce has a use before date on it, he said that it is a legal obligation, and in fact it is the wisdom of the company that the longer you keep it, the better it gets.
I must admit I stopped eating yoghurt after a number of people died (UK late 70's) from bad Hazelnuts, the use by date was in that case irrelevant, as it was poison when it was packed. It was my favourite, can't face any yoghurt now.
It is crazy, I am with the soup makers, and the trimmers of mould and green bits, as someone here said, poverty is a great reality check.
Moonwaves wrote:Not quite food wasted by the average household but I just saw this http://www.john-west.ie/our-products/salmon.aspx
and was shocked by their proud statistic that they reject over 10 million cans of salmon per year (because they don't meet their quality standards). Am going to write and ask them what happens to that salmon.
I can understand John West's reticence, in the 70's people kept dropping dead after eating their products which had botcholism (sp) or Salmonella or something...
Nugget of info: The word "Salmonella" comes from the name of a canning company "Salmon" which distributed tins of food infected with Salmonella bugs. In a landmark case, which I believe was refered to as "Salmon vs Salmon" the company, rather than the directors of the company, was held responsible, and thus came to pass limited liability!!
AXJ wrote: as someone here said, poverty is a great reality check.
... sadly this is not true of everyone. my darling mum who i love to bits lived in '3rd world' latin america until her twenties, but is the biggest overspender i know. having lived here nigh on 30 years, her kitchen is such that you can barely close the fridge door because there is food (off or not) packed into every conceivable space, foods goes off in unpacked shopping bags in the kitchen, there is shopping on every kitchen counter, and the larder is breaming. i often find sprouting vegetables, chitted potatoes, and all sorts of exciting veg/fruit growth in there. she is eco friendly in practically every other way, but you cant talk to her about this, she gets so angry and defensive it nearly reduces her to tears. its exasperating but how to break the habits of half a lifetime?
i have my theories on what could have caused this... i really see it as a psychological issue that she wont admit to, let alone seek help for (thus proving its validity as a psychological issue!!!)
and mustard powder can go mouldy in damp conditions, happened to me!
... and i saw that wife swap too, it was like they were doing a season of greenliving families vs consumercrazy families! i found the freecycle family quite depressing. they basically sponged off society in whatever way they could, but i didnt hear or see them doing anything practical about it (i.e. promoting alternatives themselves!!!)
I have the feeling that this is how many people reacted who went through the last war/s: afterwards, when everything was freely available again. they just went overboard, and carried on doing so until now we have this through-away society. However, not everybody showed this reaction. My parents were the opposite; they'd gone through two wars, and could still remember what hunger was. Nothing got thrown out (not just food), they grew most of our veg and fruit in the garden, and were frugal until the end of their lives.
And then you read articles like this one from the Sunday Herald last week:
HOMEFRONT: Fiona Gibson
THE AVERAGE family with children slings out £610 worth of food every year. We certainly dispose of the odd item we've found twitching at the back of the fridge. However, since a (wealthy) friend switched to organic-only, she reports that nothing is thrown away, "because it's so bloody expensive". So it can be done. It's all a matter of organisation, and being less fussy. Scoffing the odd wrinkled apple seems a small price to pay for a smug glow.
The week starts badly. We have acquired a vast quantity of parsnips which don't merely look tired, they are clearly suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome. Soup! Isn't that the smart way to use up decaying veg? I check the BBC website for a recipe and discover that it requires fresh thyme, cream and dry cider, none of which we have, and takes 30 to 60 minutes to prepare. Up to a whole hour to make beige sludge that would be dismissed by our children and left to turn slowly fizzy in the pot? Parsnips stay in the fridge, in the hope that they'll morph into something delicious. Beside them, a packet of bacon is wizened and curly. Can I risk poisoning my family just to chip away at our waste bill? Into the bin with it.
Daughter brings home bruised strawberries in her lunchbox. What the heck - did anyone die from strawberry poisoning? They are slimy and pretty unpleasant. I eat them with some out-of-date natural yoghurt, which worries me slightly, although organic friend retorts that yoghurt "lies around in Bedouin tents for ages" and is therefore perfectly fine until it's acquired a thick layer of mould. It reminds me of my old house-sharing days: if it's not shrouded in blue fur, then gobble it up before somebody else does. Shouldn't I have moved on by now?
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A home worker's lunches are rarely glamorous. This week I plummet to new depths, troughing anything which appears to be staggering towards the end of its lifespan: fluffy apples, soggy bananas, decrepit cheese which requires all of its edges to be sliced off, leaving a pathetic, dice-sized cube, and the rest of the Bedouin yoghurt. I soon discover that using up leftovers often means denying yourself the very thing you really want to eat. So, although you're no longer hungry, you're certainly not satisfied. It's like expecting to quell a chocolate craving with a celery stick. They are not the same thing. Plus, as you're unwilling to foist ageing foodstuffs on your family - they would snort in your face anyway - you end up hoovering up the lot yourself. You can spend an entire week consuming nothing that's remotely new or fresh. It's like discovering that your CD collection has been replaced with Bananarama and Culture Club.
In Burnt Toast, her self-help-book-cum-memoir, actress Teri Hatcher warns against living on leftovers: "Maybe you didn't want to be wasteful, but if you go ahead and eat that blackened square of bread, then what you're really saying is that the piece of bread is worth more than your own satisfaction." Darn right. I feel like a human waste disposal unit. Let's face it: leftovers are either wrinkled or clammy and suspiciously wet. That's why no-one ate them in the first place.
Friends who claim to throw out virtually nothing tend to plan their meals in advance. Canny, I know, as most food waste is caused by misjudging how much one family can possibly guzzle and buying too much. However, I can't feel excited by knowing I'll be eating pork chops and French beans in 17 days' time. It makes me want to concuss myself with a cookbook.
So I am ashamed to admit that this week we have binned: six stale rolls, the parsnips, some prehistoric Cheerios, flabby celery, carrot sticks which had taken on the appearance of rotting wood, and the sinister bacon. I have consumed a leftover warm, moist cheese string from my son's lunchbox - it was like eating a long, thin slug - and still don't feel remotely smug. I just feel queasy, actually.
For goodness sake - what a load of lazy excuses. She can't even cook soup without a recipe - and because the only recipe she manages to find has ingredients that are not in her cupboard, this option is off?
Her daughter brings strawberries back from school - so obviously she wasn't hungry and didn't eat them. Chances are she bought crisps or so instead...
I could go on and on - but this is symptomatic of Joe and Jill Public's attitude. What - use leftovers? But I caaaaaan't!
Stop bloody whining, folks. Sometimes I wish for another war just to make these people learn not to use more than they really need.
Ina
I'm a size 10, really; I wear a 20 for comfort. (Gina Yashere)
Good idea, Ina. Maybe we should pretend to be at war and restrict the food supply. Now, who could we be fighting ....? Oh - we've already done that, haven't we?
But you're right - the article you quoted misses the point about five times in a row.
Ratty
). Everything they ate was salvaged from the big metal bins out the back of supermarkets. They actually seemed to have quite a nice diet.
