I wish I was canning

At the beginning of the summer, I decided that canning was going to take up too much time, so I didn't invest in a canning kit and jars.  I figured I could freeze what I needed.

Well, I'm taking up half the freezer.  I was so used to my old roommate never using the freezer, I forgot what it would be like to seriously share it.  One of my roommates is also freezing food for the winter, and we're running out of space fast.  I'm not sure what we would do if our third roommate were using the freezer in any significant way.  She's moving in a few weeks, so she hasn't added much, but I could see it getting bad if three of us wanted to use significant amounts of space. 

But here's the problem.  I have 5 weeks left in my CSA.  In those 5 weeks, also I need to do the following things:

1. Finish the paper from my 1st-year project.  That WILL happen by Friday.
2. Finish the paper from my undergraduate project.  My 2nd-year project is with a group that is co-lead by of my coauthors.  She's apparently complained about this enough that my PI says my first month is just finishing this old paper.
3. Apply for an NSF fellowship (this assumes the shutdown is resolved before that deadline).  I have no idea what my research plan will be.
4. Grade 2 undergraduate midterm exams.
5. Take my own midterm exam.

I really, really wish I had learned to can this summer.  I did learn that after one or two long, rough tries at a complicated recipe, I can make it pretty efficiently.  I figure canning would follow the same thing.  But I've run out of time for trials.  I'll have basically 1 evening per week to cook.  That already takes several hours, especially if I invite a friend over for dinner, and the thought of trying to learn a new skill on top of it makes my head spin.  So I'm either going to have to start giving veggies away, or figure something out to keep from wasting them.

Grrr!

(p.s. my CSA list is the same as it's been for weeks, so I'm just not posting it)

CSA Week 7: relative simplicity and late postings continue

This is actually about last week's share.   I'm at my parents' house this week, hence I'm discussing last week's veggie adventures while my friend Charity takes my half of the share this week.

Veggies from week 6 did not all get eaten.  I forgot to eat the tomatoes before they went bad.  And I hadn't eaten the lettuce, either, but I incorporated it last week.

Last week, we got:

• Basil
• Beets
• 6 Cucumbers
• 4 Squashes
• Lettuce (Green Romaine and Green loose-leaf)
• Swiss Chard
• Red Onions
• Green peppers

Lettuce soup made an appearance yet again - I had some left over from the previous week, so I made a giant batch and froze some.  I simultaneously like lettuce soup for simplicity and flexibility, but it's starting to get old, so I need to figure out something else because the lettuce just keeps coming.

I sauteed some squash, but most of the squash, cucumbers, and green peppers all got eaten raw, dipped in ranch dressing or garlic scape hummus.  It was a lazy week where veggies were concerned, and I didn't feel much like cooking.  It also helped me eat healthier at my desk, which has been a challenge lately.

My favorite dish of the week was roasted beets with ricotta cheese.  Even though the beets took much longer to roast than I had anticipated, that was a delicious lunch.  Cheese is tasty, but who knew it could be a very filling protein component to a meal? (Answer: probably half the internet, but I think the story of this blog is me figuring things out that half the world already knows).   And beets.  I've eaten beets before, all pickled, and though I liked them they were more accents.  As the center-piece to a meal?  SO. GOOD.  And super easy to cook, too. 

Disposable to Reusable, Part 1: Food, Kitchen, and Shopping

When I talk to people about trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle, they almost always ask me for advice and/or say 'oh it must be so hard!'.  The first thing I tell them is to start where they can, and that the easiest place to start is by picking something that's supposed to be disposable and replacing it with a reusable thing.  So here are some of the ways I've switched from throwing away to reusing!

Two of the easiest places to switch to reusable items are in the kitchen and on shopping trips.  

Reusable grocery bags are the base level.  If you do nothing else, do this.

I have more, but they're in the wash.  FYI, its a good idea to run these through the wash after every one or two uses.  It keeps bacteria from building up on the bags.  That's why I use cloth bags, instead of the plastic ones.

I made rags out of t-shirts I'd cut up for other purposes.

I also have some made from old towels.
 

I picked up cloth napkins from yard sales.

I actually have 6 more of these white ones, but they're stained.  Colored ones are better for hiding stains.

Then reusable produce bags and cloth bags for produce or bulk foods.  I'm actually known at my farmers' market for bringing my own produce bags all the time -  almost everyone else uses plastic ones (!!!)

The mesh bags are these from Flip & Tumble.  You could also make your own if you're savvy like that - my Grandma made my cloth ones out of her quilting scraps.  The rice bag came from a friend - I told him about my shopping habits, and he said he'd bought rice in this cloth(ish) bag, but wasn't going to reuse it.  So now it's mine!


Finally, I fill glass jars with dry goods instead of buying pre-packaged foods and spices.

Some of these jars used to hold other things, and I've reused them, while others I bought new.  Many spice jars in particular were purchased already filled, and I just refill them when I run out.

Look out for Part 2 next week!

Thank You New York!

A friend just alerted me to some fabulous news that came out last week.  I'm a bit behind the times, but nonetheless I'm excited - NYC will now recycle all hard plastics!

I know recycling isn't the answer to all of our waste problems.  The cycle can only operate a few times on any one piece of plastic.  But nonetheless, for things like yogurt tubs that only come in plastic, I'm happy to at least be able to recycle them a few times around.  This will still reduce the amount of waste that's sent to landfills, and New York (and the world) need that reduction badly. 

I simultaneously worry that this recycling program will make it easier for people (including me on some days) to choose plastic packaging over metal or glass or no packaging, because the guilt over throwing the plastic away could be assuaged by being able to put it in the recycling bin.  That issue will take much more effort and education to resolve, but for now this is a step in the right direction. 


Another exciting part of that announcement, which should have been more than a blip in the middle, is that the city will also increase their composting ('organic recycling') programs at public schools.  Even less landfill waste, and more dirt.  I like it. 

Countertop Compost

I've been taking my compost to the Greenmarket for nearly 6 months now, but I upgraded my home compost collection a few weeks ago.

I used to collect my compost in a brown paper bag in the freezer.  This was great for controlling the smell, but less great in terms of having useable freezer space.  And if I produced a lot of scraps that week, the bag might not fit very well.

Enter the countertop compost bin.  I found it on sale at TJ Maxx when I was home at Christmas, and got it at an even lower price because someone had stolen the charcoal filters that are supposed to come with it.  I found some cheap filters on Amazon, and set myself up a few weeks ago:

It turned out that the filters I got were the wrong size, so I just sewed one into the lid of the pail.  Thus far it's worked out pretty well, and I like having my freezer space back.

Although my goal was to stop using a brown paper bag for my compost every week, it turns out that composting in a pail still requires some extra paper.  Because I'm only taking the compost out every week or two, I have to line the bin with paper.  I use about 1/3 of a brown paper back, torn up.  Newspaper would work too.

This helps keep food from sticking to the bottom of the pail, and absorbs some of the liquid from wet food scraps and general decomposition. 

The only problem I've had so far was when I threw a couple of moldy items in, and then wasn't able to take the compost out for 2 weeks.  Everything got moldy, and the smell permeated the filter a little bit, and when I finally got to the Greenmarket, there was a fair amount of liquid in the bottom.  The compost guy told me it's not a harmful kind of mold, but it was just a little gross.  The label on the pail said only to wipe it out with a damp rag, but it got washed with dish soap that day.

Reusing Yogurt Containers

Thus far, buying yogurt has proved to be one of the big sticking points in reducing waste.  I haven't yet found yogurt in a reusable container, and NYC doesn't recycle any plastic besides bottles.* 

I started eating yogurt a lot last year - who knew I could really love it when you get rid of all that fake sugar and flavoring? Anyway.  Nothing beats yogurt and granola for a quick, simple breakfast. 

I buy a big container from a dairy at the Greenmarket every week or two.  They started to stack up on my shelf because I figured I would find a place that would take them, i.e. the Gimme 5 program.  That hasn't happened, although I will take some home at Christmas (my parents' county recycles all numbers).

In the meantime, though, I've been using them as bulk-buy containers.  They're lightweight and stack together, which means they're easy to carry, and when I get home I just wash them. I've even used them to store some foods that don't spoil fast and that I eat fairly quickly, like oats, brown rice, and pasta.  I sharpie the food, cost, and tare onto the lid to make life easier on the volunteers at 4th Street Food CoOp. 


*http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/resources/plastics_collection.shtml

Small Success: Compost!

I should not be this excited about food scraps.  Really, really shouldn't.  And yet. 

When I started cooking a lot last year, I felt frustrated by the amount of food waste I was dumping in the garage bag.  We didn't have a general compost program at my undergrad, and a dorm apartment isn't really the place to make a compost pile.  So I've been anticipating this since I first found out about GrowNYC's compost program at their Greenmarkets.  Once a week at the local Greenmarket, I take my little pile of food scraps to the compost stand.  They have big bins waiting to take my scraps and turn them into compost for city greening projects.  Woohoo!

Right now I'm using a foil/plastic takeout container that's living in the freezer to collect my scraps.  When I stopped by the Greenmarket stand last week, they told me that if I'm keeping the scraps in the freezer, then I can actually use a paper bag, and then just drop the entire bag in the collection bin.  I'm probably going to switch to that method next week, until I can find a better container.