Fellow St. Louis cook (and New York transplant) food blogger Nupur of One Hot Stove has a great post today about minimizing food waste, something that is something I certainly need work on. Since a large focus on my cooking is the resulting photography, how the food looks as I prepare it is very important. My knife skills are terrible (and I need a new good knife, frankly) but I am improving. The better my knife skills get the less waste I have. I think my biggest single area of food waste comes in the form of the refrigerator. Nupur address this as item number one on her list:
1. Keep the fridge clean and clutter free. Out of sight really is out of mind (and mouth). By knowing where everything is, food is not hidden or forgotten. I have zones in the fridge for prepared food (ready to eat, such as leftovers), dairy and eggs, fruits and vegetables, and for ingredient that need to be used up (half used cans of coconut milk or tomato, or a partial block of cheese, say). Seeing these grouped together triggers the reminder to eat them up.
Want to guess what I’m going to be doing tomorrow? One of the other things she mentions is composting. I’m going to spend some time looking into a viable system for in-house composting too. I want to start growing herbs and what better way than to grow them in my one recycled food waste. If you know of any good composte systems let me know in the comments.
Read rest of Nupur’s post:12 Tips to Minimize Food Waste.
3 Comments
Nupur
December 8, 2010 at 6:32 amHi Jonathan! Thanks so much for mentioning my post on your blog.
Your food photos are incredible. I look forward to reading your blog regularly.
ShootToCook
December 8, 2010 at 8:03 amThanks so much! Dr. Fiance pointed out your blog to me and I’ve been enjoying it as well!
J.W.Price
December 10, 2010 at 11:27 amHi Jon! I’ve never gotten around to composing (or vermiculture, which might be easier in an apartment). But since I’m without income right now, I do spend a lot of time thinking about how to minimize food waste.
I like the 5-day meal worksheet at this website: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/plan/menuplanning/5dayplanner/ Although the advice is aimed at Iowa farmers with large families, the principle is the same. It forces me to spend 10 minutes looking in the fridge before I go to the grocery store. I usually find some bits and pieces that I need to cook up. I haven’t thrown away as many vegetables this month. (I’m a serial vegetable killer.)
I love your photos! (And the photo of the X-mas tree.)
Jess.