We’ve now finished two weeks of trying to reduce our household food waste. This might not be the most exciting reading, BUT it is getting us motivated and inspired to keep on reducing the amount of edible food the Dirty Boots household wastes. I think we’re slowly improving too. Even Mr Dirty Boots has been keeping an eye on things and boiling all his potato peelings for the animals. This has saved us some dog food too!
I’ve been monitoring portion size much more closely which is making a big difference. The main way I’m finding that we can waste less food is simply by being quicker at making decisions. All leftovers are put in the fridge overnight at the longest. The following morning I’m deciding either to use the leftovers that day or I’m putting them (labelled) straight into the freezer. The majority of wasted food we have seems to be things I think I’ll probably use in the next day or so. Probably doesn’t work. Use it that day or freeze it.
The second thing I’m trying to do, is to use something from the freezer every time something else is put in it. Otherwise the freezer can simply be a very cold and slow route to the compost bin. I used to forget about things until they were so frost bitten and dry I knew I wouldn’t want to eat them. So each time I put some leftovers into our freezer I plan something I can take out within a day (and stick to it) for us to consume. I admit it helps that our freezer isn’t very big!
The bonus in this method is that I uncovered a stash of dried figs which are perfect and had been forgotten about. So dried figs, honey & Greek yogurt for desert tonight – hurrah!
So what did we waste? Not as much!
Food Wasted – Week Two
- 3/4 tin of anchoves. When I opened the tin I ummed and ahhhed about freezing the unused fillets, but I hid them in the fridge instead. Note to self if I think I may use part of a tin of something freeze it anyway. It makes no difference to the food and means it won’t get wasted. Lesson learnt – we now have 1/2 tin of tomatoes and 1/2 jar of flagolet beans stashed in the deep freeze.
- 5 oranges. Yes fruit is still an issue. But in our defence these were a bit soft, and had been gifted by someone else who didn’t want them AND we replaced them with many many kilos of fresh oranges, mandarins and lemons which would have been wasted in a disused orange grove. This week the house will be marmalade central!
- 1 apple – Mr Dirty Boots is still failing to eat enough fruit – what can I say!
There have been a few crusty bits of bread, a bowl of not very nice chick pea soup and a few ultra crispy (burnt?) roast potatoes too. But all this edible but not lovely stuff has gone to the animals. Incidentally cats seem to really enjoy chick peas!
So we’re still ‘wasting’ a little food but less than last week. And we’re thinking about it more so hopefully the improvement should continue.
And still, we compost everything the animals won’t eat (which isn’t much) so I still don’t feel as guilty as maybe I should!
For a more self sufficient future