I’m cheating writing this post tonight as am soooooo tired I can barely even keep my eyes open (and we have 20+ people coming to stay for an all-weekend mini-festival at our house tomorrow yikes better get some kip soon) but my dear friend Rach just sent me this via email so am doing nothing more than copying &pasting &hitting the publish button…
Hi Ackers,
A. bought home an interesting article in the Guardian the other day. It contained 20 tips on how to cut food waste,I thought it was really helpful,although most of them we do already,but it sounded to me like something that would be good on your blog. They also point you to this site which is great:
http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
As a direct result of reading the article I made a lovely batch of strawberry jam after going to the fruit farm at the weekend.
Anyway,thought it might be of interest to you.
Xx
- Avoid the supermarket
- Ignore 2 for 1 offers (just a way for supermarkets to get rid of excess food near it’s sell by date)
- Shop daily for perishables
- bulk buy non-perishables
- Be storage savvy (a lot more on this on the site above)
- Meal-plan for the week
- Cook! That is not just following a recipe but being able to create dishes from what you have in the fridge
- Buy quality not quantity
- Freecycle/become a ‘freegan’ –I think this is something to do with getting food from supermarket bins that has damaged packaging but is perfectly fine otherwise
- Reacquaint yourself with your freezer – apparently freezers are more efficient when full Good housekeeping.com has good tips on using the freezer
- Don’t be afraid of an empty fridge – this was a revelation to me,I always get twitchy with an empty fridge incase I can’t feed my family,but now I like it not so full so that I can see exactly what I’ve got and I know how I’m going to use it.
- Grow your own herbs and salad
- Buy vegetables whole
- Know how much a portion is so you don’t overcook
- Bulk-cook meals – then freeze the rest
- Learn how to use leftovers – My mum was saying that they’d have roast on Sunday,cold cuts on Monday,hotpot on Tuesday maybe a pie and then always fish on Friday. There is nothing wrong with having the same meal on the same day of the week…we’re too used to being impulsive with food etc..
- Look to previous generations – during the war years and up until the 60’s food was precious,a weeks meals were planned down to the last carrot. Dishes such as shepherd’s pie and bread and butter pudding use up leftover food
- Take sell-by dates with a pinch of salt
- Rediscover packed lunches
- Equip yourself – introduce yourself to the stockpot,freezer bag and salad washer
Thank you Rach!!
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Lots of good ideas there,especially the one about cooking a meal from what’s in the fridge etc.
thanks for the link to that site,i’ll check it out.
by the way i’ve given you an award- details on my blog
2) is actually wrong. Well at least part of the time (may be different on things like the fresh veg aisle.
Supermarkets actually put food manufacturers under a lot of pressure to provide plenty of BOGOFs (buy one get one free) and 3for2s because they know it gets people through the door. The price of the promotion is mainly carried by the food manufacturer rather than the supermarket and is planned months in advance.
Probably should be amended to be aware of BOGOFs unless you’re certain you can use all of it in time,and never ever buy BOGOF on soft fruit (fallen foul of that,many a time!)
3) I’d also suggest is dubious. I have never managed to go into a food shop for “just”milk or whatever and not come out with something I didn’t really need. Shopping daily can become very expensive and wasteful.
18) I agree but I would add the caveat that Best Before are also flexible,but Use By dates should probably be adhered to much more carefully. Sell-by is purely for the shop,Best Before is advisory –a suggestion before which the product will be more tasty. Use By is part of food safety laws and is a lot less flexible.
Other than that,there’s some good advice in there
I find your site wonderful! Another great way to cut waste is to compost if you have a garden,( great to keep lawns vigorous too). Vegatable scraps,egg shells,newspaper,grass clippings etc.
I agree a less full fridge is so much better. Eating out of your garden is delightful and healthy and well worth the effort. Really good tips,thanks for sharing
[...] Recently,I found a new blog I love,Becoming Domestic,and on it was a post about cutting food waste. [...]
Haarionve just come across your website and have found it reallly great,keep up the great work.