Food Waste Friday | It's the vegetable drawer (and some cilantro.)
Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
I found some yucky, slimy things in my vegetable drawer.
And I have no idea why a tomato is in there because I don't even keep tomatoes in the fridge.
At least, not on purpose.
On the bright side, I washed the drawer, so now my non-rotten veggies are enjoying a shiny home.
I have to also report that I let some cilantro go bad.
That's especially embarrassing given that I wrote a whole post about how to use up cilantro.
I did try to save a slightly soft cucumber by peeling it and slicing it for a salad, but it just didn't taste very good. So the last few slices of that are probably going to be composted.
Oh!! And I forgot about one more vegetable tragedy. I bought a nice bunch of asparagus and it got shoved into a cold part of the fridge.
It froze.
And when I thawed it, it was so mushy, it pretty much just fell to pieces.
But, I bought a new bunch this week and cooked it promptly. So perhaps that atones a bit for my asparagus faux pas.
Well. This week was just full of sad vegetable stories, and I probably made some of you feel much better about your own food waste.
I'll try not to do that next week. 😉
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Today's 365 post: Drawers? Check. Paint? Check.
Joshua's 365 post: Pogo Pogo Pogo!! Yay! (it's a video of Lisey's hamster in a hamster ball)
The accidental freezing of produce in the fridge is something I have to keep my eye on. I've had, on a couple of occasions, the kids knock the thermostat onto mega cold when reaching in the fridge, then I've been flumoxed as to why I can't slice a cucumber?
Good week for me apart from 4 mid-week wasted satsumas - I've taken to popping them in the fridge - well I've got the space! They keep going mouldy - may look at where I'm buying them from!
Other than that my photo's this week consisted of naked muffins - I'm trying to reduce packaging waste - so they were baked "au natrel"!
I have been working through the contents of a refrigerator and freezer that came full-stocked - and then some - when I moved in here. The housemate is a bit impulsive about food purchases, and doesn't eat many leftovers. The previous tenant was a college student who never finished anything. The upside is that I haven't had to stock up on groceries, and the downside is that I threw out a lot of spoiled food.
Well, this week was pretty much taken up with dealing with last week's Baking Disaster cake waste! I've been so busy concocting recycled desserts that I haven't had time to generate any more food waste! Hurrah!
Ohhh, I hate it when vegetables freeze! That happens at very random times in my fridge, also. I've had cheese freeze as well, but at least that's not mushy when it thaws. I didn't have much food waste this week but my cooking has been very simple. Also, I keep tossing stuff into the freezer. I need to remember it's there so it doesn't become food waste in the future!
A couple of portions of leftovers but not a bad week considering I threw a 90th birthday.
I find parties are so easy to create tonnes of food waste. Don't you?
I used to have veggie freezing problems, then I just started putting them all in the same (non-freezy) spot and that fixed it. Apparently this week I had veggie *thawing* problems... 🙂
One of my fridges has a freezing problem too, in the very back on the bottom shelf. Sometimes I just have too many veggies and have to put some there, and they get shoved to the back, This once happened with a bag of carrots, When I discovered the bag with icicles on it, I took them out, washed them and cooked them up for puree for muffins. At least they got eaten. But this week I found a jam jar (and blueberry, too, my favorite so a sad, sad, day for me), it had about 1 inch of jam left and it was a funny color, so I had to scoop it out and compost it. I try very hard not to waste. Waste is one of those things that really bothers me.
Those veggies do look nasty. I am grieved this week over a jar of blueberry jam. It only had about an inch left, but it was an off color, so scooped it out for the compost bin. Blueberries are my favorites and are difficult to grow where we live. Sad, very sad over the jam.
With the spot in the fridge that freezes everything (for me it's the lower rear of fridge), I store the extra butter now. If it freezes, no big deal. But I have had lettuce get shoved to the back. Hate to see that happen!
Nothing this week that I was responsible for.
Things I was not responsible for:
- about 30% of a gifted bok choy
- a few leaves of purchased farmer's market bok choy (I consider this the price of low or no chem produce: some of it will go bad)
- a few berries.
I accept a few bad berries in a container, as part of the price of reducing food waste. Here's way: if I complain to the store, then the store will throw out entire packages just because a single berry is bad, and they'll do it more often and more vigorously just to avoid customer complains and refunds. I'd rather buy the package myself and throw out the single berry and leave the store in blissful ignorance.
I've done that my self. Some how, I've come to feel responsible for rescuing packages with just a bad berry or two because I know they will throw out the whole package. And I hate that. Thank you, Jonathan Bloom. 🙂
If I see the bad berries at the store, I replace it with one from another package. There are way to figure out where to get the replacement berry that doesn't lead to someone else getting a short bunch. Best way is to take the replacements from a box with several bad berries already, and so is likely to be thrown out anyway.
I've been following along for quite some time now, but this is my first week actually commenting. 🙂 I think I did alright this week. Two things are a huge improvement from where I started. I had strawberries and fresh peas go bad this week. But all isn't lost because I threw them into the compost.
I still think with 5 people you did amazingly well this week.
I lost 4 poatoes and half a cucumber, and after doing so well with nothing chucked last week!
Good luck this week.
So true! It's scary how much they will throw out. Do you have Second Harvest in your area?
I found a 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes pushed to the back of the fridge.......
and I gave the dog the rest of the week-old macaroni/tuna salad, so I guess it really wasn't wasted, right?
And the dog's okay?
Oh sure......gut of steel lol (but he can't tolerate pork)
Too funny! This makes me laugh!
I'm not linking up this week but I only had a tomato that had to be tossed. I spent some time Wednesday morning chopping, peeling and cooking fruit and veggies.
I had to laugh when I saw your slimy veggies because it just struck me funny. 😉
A vegetable tragedy indeed. Asperagus is such a treat.
recently I've had a problem letting leftovers go bad before I could eat them but NOT THIS WEEK, I'm happy to report NO food waste.
I love your "asparagus faux pas"! It has a certain ring to it 🙂
For the first time in a VERY long time, I have no waste!! 🙂
Now that the summer has begun, I have to maintain two homes. That means two refrigerators, two pantries, so that means double the food waste.
So far, nothing. I'm good.
I only buy the food I will consume immediately. Seems to be working.
http://cindyonrhinebeck.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/the-mountains-or-the-beach/
Linking up for the first time here... Lots of food waste this week 🙁
I bet my picture would make you feel better about yours 🙂
I always have this problem with things like cilantro. I don't need much for a dish, but you have to buy a hefty amount at the store, so it goes bad. I know this is why some people grow their own herbs, but it would have to be quite an herb garden to cover everything.
You're right. And even growing it, I find I have this limited window when it's really good, then it all goes to seed. I know I could space out planting it, but don't always get to that sort of thing. Something I do, though, when I buy a bunch of something like that, I just give half to a good friend. We reciprocate this way. One week she has too much of something, the next I do.
That's exactly the problem I've had...my cilantro goes to seed so fast!
I've had good luck with prolonging my cilantro's shelf life. When I get home from the store, I immediately take off the band. Then I wrap the bunch (especially the leaves!) in a paper towel, then put it all in a plastic bag in the fridge. It will keep for up to 2 weeks this way.
It seems to me that when you have a moist soft leaf (cilantro, lettuce, etc.) against a plastic bag, rot quickly sets in. Having a paper towel between the leaf and the bag helps a lot.
I know you can put it in a glass of water (like a bouquet of flowers) in the fridge, but that seems to be inviting a lot of spills!
I didn't have to throw anything away today! I did lose a few things earlier this week when our fridge went out.. but now I have a new fridge that actually stays consistently cold! Hopefully I'll have a lot less food waste from now on.
i saved some cilantro and garlic by mincing them (separately, of course) and freezing them in small containers. I buy the frozen cubes of both of these from trader joe's, so why not save some money and some food waste and freeze my own?
next time you have frozen asparagus, make cream of asparagus soup. just use a broccoli soup recipe and sub the asparagus. it's delicious... we actually like it better than broccoli soup.
Did good this week. No waste!
Don't remember throwing anything out this week, but I think there was something, just can't remember what it was. But only a small something. I threw out some pepperoni, unless that was last week. But I do have some old rice in the fridge that may need to be thrown out. Haven't checked it, and probably won't make soup this week with it being 90 degrees today and tomorrow. But we shall see.