tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3836990271366559212024-03-20T23:01:19.145+00:00Aiming LowKatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-17580598901719447992010-01-27T13:20:00.003+00:002010-01-27T13:39:42.573+00:00Packaging-free food shopping?<a href="http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/01/21/londons-unpackaged-grocery-shop-eliminates-wasteful-packaging/">Inhabitat</a>, a nifty green design/lifestyle/architecture blog, recently posted (all wide-eyed and ooooh) about <a href="http://beunpackaged.com/">Unpackaged</a>, a grocery shop that sells lots of foods loose.<br /><br />Well, it's a great idea. But it's not new. Of course, now it's come to the notice of trendy posh Londonites, who want Bee Pollen and Red Quinoa, it's the next big thing, but weigh-it-yourself type shops have been around for ages - they're not common, but they are there. It's just that, you know what? They are in run-down areas where people don't have much spare cash, and they sell no-brand cornflakes. Fancy!<br /><br />It seems it's either top end or bottom end of the market, and nothing in the middle...Freegle Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02583094982079078043noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-8820208414119665182010-01-23T21:06:00.003+00:002010-01-23T21:59:10.729+00:00What's new?Long time no blog...<br /><br />How about an update of good habits and slippage? Where are we over a year after zero waste week?<br /><br />Food buying habits are still pretty good I think. We still head to the local shops or market as much as we can, and we don't buy much processed food at all. There has been a bit of slippage on the baking front, and a few more cereal bars and similar snacks being bought, but we're back on home made cake this week. Yay! And we still fearlessly laugh in the face of Best Before dates and Consume Within advice, and trust our noses, with no should-have-been-edible food going in the bin. There are a few things that have gone in the compost when they've gone off too soon, pears and satsumas being a bit prone to mouldiness for some reason. <br /><br />There has been a loss to the eco-shopping scene in Norwich. Wholefood Planet closed this month. I said when I originally <a href="http://aiming-low.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-shopping-opportunities.html">blogged about it</a> that it was out of the way, and I think that probably did for it. In an industrial unit down a dead end road on the very edge of town is not the place to open a shop, or a cafe (as they added later). It is a real shame, as it deserved to do well, but it also deserved to be better located for passing traffic and those who don't drive (presumably a fair proportion of their target eco-audience?). I will miss the large packs of wholefoods.<br /><br />We have reluctantly moved away from the Bio-D washing liquid and softener that came in 25 litre containers and saved us lots of packaging. It was causing huge amounts of what can only be described as gunge in the washing machine. I don't know if it deteriorated because we didn't use it quickly enough, but there were grim mucus-y blobs in the softener, and a similar substance building up in the tray (and presumably in the pipes). We are trying some other eco alternatives including concentrated softener and, I'm afraid, wrapped tablets. Any comments on better-packaged things that work and don't cause gunge?<br /><br />We had a new situation back in November - workmen in the house. Our old boiler went pop (more like dribble, actually) and so we replaced it with a more efficient one, requiring some changes to the whole heating system. The plumber took away the old boiler, feeder tank from the loft, and the insulated hot water tank from the airing cupboard. But he left behind cardboard and polystyrene packaging, broken tiles, leftover mortar/plaster stuff, assorted screws and general waste. Unfortunately he left it in the recycling bin, since that's outside the front door and the rubbish bin is tucked away behind the garage since we use it less often. So we had to tip up the whole wheelie bin and sort out the contents. Even when I mentioned it to him, MORE waste went in it the next day. ARGH.<br /><br />There have been some changes to our Freecycle group in that it's become <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norwichfreegle">Freegle</a>, but it still works just as well as ever. We had some great publicity in the November 2009 issue of <a href="http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/lifestyle/your-rubbish-your-choice/">Your Rubbish Your Choice</a> (you can read it online from that link - page 16-17), and once again went to te Norfolk Waste Partnership conference to spread the word. In YRYC you can read about <a href="http://www.recycle-pc.co.uk/">Recycle-PC</a>, who collect all manner of old IT equipment through Freegle, make working systems, and give them away to those who need them - not to mention disposing properly of the bits that are no longer useful. I was really pleased (and not a little surprised) to find out that old PCs from work go to these guys, and passed on a whole vanload of computers to them at the end of the year. I'll be adding some bits of our own as soon as my husband's not looking ;)Freegle Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02583094982079078043noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-71977825526335485222009-08-14T16:36:00.002+01:002009-08-14T16:42:08.200+01:00The dreaded lurgiNo, I'm not ill - but there's something wrong.<br /><br />I still carry on my Zero Waste Week habit of baking some sort of tray bake for the week, rather than buy packaged cereal bars etc, but the past two weeks have ended in disaster. Green, furry disaster. Despite being stored in airtight containers, my cakes (banana last week, date and walnut this week) have been showing mould after just 4 days. And I don't mean a mouldy corner that you can cut off before eating the rest of the cake (I'm not squeamish!) - I mean a fine fuzz of filaments across the cake.<br /><br />At least the birds have had quite a feast!<br /><br />Both cakes came out quite moist, so I wonder if that is it - in this humid weather I guess any mould spores in the air will just go crazy given some yummy sticky sweet bits to feast on.<br /><br />I think I will have to bake something I can freeze this weekend - if I take a piece out in the morning it will be defrosted by lunch time. I'm just very annoyed at the waste :(Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-21119118780568882102009-08-03T11:52:00.004+01:002011-02-25T13:39:55.370+00:00Laugh, cry, your choiceAs householders we can do our bit to cut down out own waste, and we can try and buy items that are intelligently packaged. However, sometimes you have to order things online or otherwise remotely, and not only do you not have a choice about the item's packaging, you also don't get much say in how it's sent to you. There's usually cardboard, polythene, polystyrene, and possibly lots of plastic clippy things or twist ties.<br />
<br />
Sometimes you can sort of see the need. No-one wants a broken laptop delivered to them. Recently we needed a printer, and bought a Canon one which was very efficiently packaged with lots of cardboard (less polystyrene) and lots of ingenious tucking of wires and manuals and things into gaps.<br />
<br />
But think for a moment. Even if you don't buy very much stuff at all, even if you are determined to exist without unnecessary gadgetry, and get things from Freecycle when you do need them, the fact remains that you still deal with lots of organisations, from banks to shops to online providers like Google. And they all have IT infrastructure, and are presumably almost constantly upgrading and repairing and keeping things going, ordering kit as they need it.<br />
<br />
And it looks like the companies that supply these organisations (big names, like HP and Dell), are <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/29/aboxalypse_now/">creating more than enough idiotic and unnecessary packaging waste for the rest of us</a>!<br />
<br />
Who makes these decisions? Who looks at 2 A4 sheets of paper, puts them in a foam-lined cardboard box, and then puts that in with 15 other boxes (same contents) into another, bigger box to send to the customer, and thinks it's a good idea? Have these people not heard of envelopes?<br />
<br />
And is anyone receiving this idiocy going to say anything to the supplier? I'd like to be proved wrong, but I say probably not. How on earth can we combat this sort of thing?Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-6824834375557649472009-07-28T10:07:00.001+01:002011-02-25T13:41:51.889+00:00Oh dearWhat a shame. <a href="http://aiming-low.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-waste.html">This chap</a> didn't do very well in the election. Now he should have time to find a new use for every damn one of those DVDs.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-76815076348776448952009-07-16T17:30:00.000+01:002009-07-16T17:30:00.220+01:00Keeping tags on rubbish<b>Thousands of pieces of household rubbish are to be tracked using sophisticated mobile tags</b> (<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8149183.stm">BBC News</a> and <a href="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/trash-0715.html">MIT press release</a>)<br /><br />Three thousand smart tags are going to be attached to things being thrown away. OK, so the researchers say that the resource use and manufacturing of the tags is justified by the information that will be gathered, but how does adding a tag this size (we're not taking a James Bond micro-gadget here) not contaminate the recycling stream of whatever it's attached to? One of the items mentioned is garden waste - I don't think they will compost, somehow. And the tag is made of electronic components, which are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_waste">hard enough to reprocess</a> thanks to all the toxic metals and so on.<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">"We hope that Trash Track will also point the way to a possible urban future: that of a system where, thanks to the pervasive usage of smart tags, 100 percent recycling could become a reality,"</span> says research assistant, Musstanser Tinauli.</blockquote>Hang on - I can accept that for one research project it could be a good idea to track a load of rubbish. Pervasive (i.e. much wider) use of smart tags does not, to me, seem to be the way to go. Tags tell you where your stuff has been (if you care) when it is/after it has been there. What needs to happen is that the information from the research project needs to be used to identify where the biggest improvements to recycling flows can be made, so that consumers who do throw things away don't have to worry about it - as long as they put them in the appropriate bin, they are dealt with properly. There's no need to tag everything!<br /><br />(Of course this research should also just be a part of the bigger picture, where efforts are also put into reduction and re-use so that there is less to recycle anyway, rather than reinforcing the idea of "I recycled it, so that's OK" regardless of whether or not the item was actually necessary in the first place, or still had useful life left in it.)<br /><br />Concerns aside, I'll be interested to see where the tags end up, at what point they get removed (will they be crushed and melted down if attached to a glass bottle? Will they get recycled themselves if they are on other electronic equipment? What happens when an item is split up, e.g. mobile phone into plastic casing, screen and circuitry?), and whether the information gathered matches up with what we think we know from the conventional records of where particular waste streams go. It could shed some light on the old "recycling collected by X council actually goes to landfill" stories we see in the media from time to time. But as ever, the important thing is then what's actually DONE with the information...Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-44429491198471268072009-07-15T15:36:00.005+01:002009-07-15T20:55:05.263+01:00A long-lost memeI don't seem to get notifed when I have a comment, so this <a href="http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/2009/04/obsessions-and-guilty-pleasures.html">meme tag</a> from (*cough*) some time ago got lost! Sorry :(<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">1.What are your current obsessions?</span><br />Raising money to <a href="http://www.wherryyachtcharter.org">keep three Norfolk wherries going</a>. Browsing charity shop bookshelves, and planning travels!<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?</span><br />My "<a href="http://www.threadless.com/product/562/Infinity_MPG">infinityMPG</a>" t-shirt from Threadless.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">3. What’s for dinner?</span><br />We're clearing out the freezer for a de-frost, so it's pork mince with rice, veggies (onions, broccoli, peas) and miscellaneous spices, followed by vanilla ice cream.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">4. Last thing you bought?</span><br />Six books and a lovely skirt from the Cancer Research shop.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">5. What are you listening to?</span><br />In The Music, from the <a href="http://www.trashcansinatras.com/">Trash Can Sinatras</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">6. Do you have a pet and if not, why not?</span><br />No. I'm just not a pet person.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">7. Favourite holiday spots?</span><br />North Norfolk coast, and Canada. I love love love <a href="http://www.byfords.org.uk/">Byford's</a> in Holt. But really I love getting away anywhere in the countryside.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">8. Reading right now?</span><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welsh-Girl-Peter-Ho-Davies/dp/0340938277">The Welsh Gir</a>l by Peter Ho Davies. See #4 :) Only just started it but it seems very interesting so far. Also just finished <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Water-Elephants-Sara-Gruen/dp/0340935286">Water For Elephants</a> by Sara Gruen, from the same batch, which was one of the best books I have read in a long time. Great story, nothing too clever but brilliantly written. And it was 75p!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">9. 4 words to describe yourself. </span><br />Independent, loyal, untidy, procrastinator<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">10. Guilty pleasure?</span><br />Anything from <a href="http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/">Hotel Chocolat</a>...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">11. <span style="font-style: italic;">Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?</span></span><br />Bill Bailey. We bought the CD of his Tinselworm show when we saw him in Nottingham a couple of years back and it stayed in the car for months - we never got bored, and it's still funny. <span style="font-style: italic;">"The home base of Al-Quaeda? That's how we'll get them - find out where they're buying their patio furniture."</span> Part Troll is even better. And <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&v=X4ruurkdNg0">this</a> is the pinnacle.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">12. First spring thing? </span><br />Oh dear, I think this shows how long I left it - I will change it to summer and say local strawberries, the best smell around!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">13. Planning to travel to next? </span><br />Canada - Vancouver, across the Rockies to Calgary, and home.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">14. Best thing you ate or drank lately? </span><br />Home-brewed beer from someone in my German class - wunderbar!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">15. When did you last get tipsy? </span><br />In Bristol, visiting friends after completing a huge triathlon.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">16. Favourite ever film? </span><br />It's a cliche, but the Shawshank Redemption is top stuff.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">17. Care to share some wisdom?</span><br />Gut instinct is right more often than you might think.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">18. Favourite song?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>I go through phases of putting things on repeat. The last thing like that was <a href="http://www.myspace.com/emmythegreat">Emmy The Great</a>. My pre-race psych-up song is Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, and comedy wise Rob Brydon on ISIHAC is classic (see my <a href="http://katystriblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/exploratory-run-and-few-good-tunes.html">other blog</a>)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">19. What's your favourite meal you make without sticking to a recipe?</span><br />I make many things without a recipe! Probably sausage casserole (proper local bangers only).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">20. What was the last thing that made you say "that's so STUPID!"?</span><br />That, in my job, if you get promoted you have to do the same work but in less time, because you get paid the same amount overall but at a faster rate.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">21. Facebook or Twitter? Other or Neither?<br /></span>Facebook. A bit. Mainly for Wordscraper (like Scrabble).<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /><br />22. Name one thing you do now that you would never have imagined 10 years ago.<br /></span>More or less any form of exercise but especally triathlon!<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br />I still don't have many blog friends but I will tag <a href="http://wastefreealex.blogspot.com/2009/04/seelings-ahoy.html">Alex</a> and <a href="http://zerowaist.blogspot.com/">Just Gai</a>, in the hope it might wake them up and bring them back out to play.<br /><br />Rules: Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Then tag people.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-72280141816571746752009-07-15T15:05:00.005+01:002011-02-25T13:43:39.148+00:00What a wasteThere is a by-election coming up in Norwich following the de-selection of Ian Gibson. I am not in that constituency, so have been spared the doorstepping and reams of leaflets that are no doubt clogging the recycling bins of Norwich North as I type, but I still see things in the local media.<br />
<br />
Like this:<br />
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;">With piles of election leaflets landing on the doormats of families in Norwich North, one candidate has hit on a way to stand out from the rest - he has posted a DVD of his election address to just under 80,000 voters.<br />
</blockquote><br />
(Update: I had a link to the Evening News story, but it's now gone.)<br />
<br />
Good grief. How many of those will even get watched? Even if they do I doubt they will be kept as a cherished souvenir. But can they be easily recycled? No. So all eighty thousand of them will end up in landfill. Wonderful.<br />
<br />
Are you ready, fact fans?<br />
<br />
A stack of 25 DVDs on my desk is 12cm in diameter and 4cm high, so has a volume of about 450 cm3. 80,000 will have a volume of 1,440,000 cm3 or 144 m3. That's just under an quarter of the volume of the shallow pool at the Sportspark (1.2m x 25m x 8 2.5m lanes). Or, since a quick Google (I have no scales!) informs me that 50 DVDs weigh about 900g, that means 80,000 of them have a total weight of 1440kg, i.e. 1.4 tonnes.<br />
<br />
What a colossal waste of resources. Grr.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-62639689277945086722009-07-15T15:05:00.001+01:002009-07-15T15:05:46.327+01:00*Yaaaawn* .... *stretch*Coming out of sleep mode to comment on a few things :)Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-60489583265243231192009-04-11T15:01:00.004+01:002009-04-11T15:45:40.356+01:00Hubble, bubble, soil and troubleAh, spring. Flowers are blooming, leaves are unfurling, and bank holidays are in the air. And what do we do on fine, sunny bank holidays in spring? Sensible people go to the beach or for a lovely country walk. I quite often manage to fit in a bike ride, which usually involves tea and cake. But this time the garden called.<br /><br />If you are imagining me wafting around the garden with a trug and a big floppy hat, doing a little light pruning, then stop. Our garden is not big enough to waft around, for a start, and far from in need of light pruning. Industrial lopping, maybe. But what was calling me was the conglomeration of pots and planters from previous years, now mostly sporting weeds and moss. They looked a mess, and were depressing me every time I looked out of the kitchen window. Time for a spring clean!<br /><br />We grabbed some rubble sacks from the garage, and set to emptying the pots. I didn't want to reuse the soil, for various reasons. It's full of weeds, not to mention stones and crocks used for drainage, and we have nowhere to put it except the veg patch (which is not in need of more stones or weeds!). As we stopped for lunch, I quickly checked the excellent <a href="http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/consumption/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=3125">online recycling centre info</a> and found that soil is not permitted with garden waste - it counts as DIY waste and is limited to one 80 litre sack per week unless you pay.<br /><br />Oh.<br /><br />I didn't <span style="font-style: italic;">really </span>want my soil going to landfill anyway - I just wanted it out of the pots. It could be reused but I think it needs revitalising first, e.g. mixing with some of the compost from my bin, not to mention sieving to get rid of the stones. Where to put it in the meantime? Well, we have had a couple of pallets lurking in the garage for a while, with the idea we could make a compost heap enclosure when we fond another couple. You know what? No time like the present!<br /><br />By 3pm we had decided to go ahead and make an enclosure. By 3:05 I had found some <a href="http://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/projects/compost-bin/">instructions</a> online and by 3:15 we had dug out the pallets and a leftover chunk of kitchen worktop about the same size. By 4:20pm we had fenced off an area for our heap :)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNmzHpEyvLpT6Rzl1N7Ya2TO9vmtrlUPGqtKDF7QiJSbi2RW4CjFOpE4HDWOWp4yHqn6KXQYdzI6qJGcBfXlv08-kmPCuO5FJrbD1UfoW6okZnBwo4MC2caulEQp4gKwWFM8WrvZ0N5go/s1600-h/IMG_6004.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 161px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNmzHpEyvLpT6Rzl1N7Ya2TO9vmtrlUPGqtKDF7QiJSbi2RW4CjFOpE4HDWOWp4yHqn6KXQYdzI6qJGcBfXlv08-kmPCuO5FJrbD1UfoW6okZnBwo4MC2caulEQp4gKwWFM8WrvZ0N5go/s320/IMG_6004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323440595259972914" border="0" /></a>Two pallets make the sides, and the worktop supports at the back. Old canes keep some cardboard pressed up against the pallets to keep things inside. We had to cut one of the pallets down, and the extra struts form a mini fence at the front. Garden wire helps keep things together.<br /><br />It's not really a fully-functioning compost heap - the green bin will continue to take a mix of kitchen waste and paper/cardboard, plus some of the less-woody garden trimmings, and produce lovely compost. The enclosure is more for the tougher, woodier garden waste, and the soil from the pots. We also put in some bags of garden waste from a while back that didn't fit in the green bin but which we hadn't managed to take to the waste centre yet.<br /><br />After all this we still took a tip to the recycling centre. In clearing for the enclosure we grubbed up a lot of ivy that had crept in, and knew that if we put that in either bin it would just grow and grow. So we took that, and also grabbed up any tetra packs, metal, foil and other things that don't get collected. Previously we have always gone to the waste centre in the city (Mile Cross), but this time we took a short journey south to Ketteringham. What a revelation. There was no queue of cars, and the skips were out in the open air, nothing was overfull, and there was no hint of that lovely "dump smell". The two workers there were very friendly and even the welcome/info signs were brightened up with flowers. It was 5:15pm on Good Friday and they were open for another 45 minutes. Overall we were in and out in a flash and everything was super-easy and very impressive.<br /><br />The only thing that made me sad was a cooker fly-tipped at the entrance... *sigh*<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn85ECVJTLadKCQfdKCDX-fnBHSOLAKWEbUrsVszLQZmxWaH4yhNwYvzbAD9aUc0K85CFSq2cINcvza25l97yfRX_vwaDNfdIOY-_ATD6NDdiJsZ9bISnuqrosXPSk0XyXRBgJ91Qlhr8/s1600-h/IMG_6005.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn85ECVJTLadKCQfdKCDX-fnBHSOLAKWEbUrsVszLQZmxWaH4yhNwYvzbAD9aUc0K85CFSq2cINcvza25l97yfRX_vwaDNfdIOY-_ATD6NDdiJsZ9bISnuqrosXPSk0XyXRBgJ91Qlhr8/s320/IMG_6005.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323444211021455746" border="0" /></a>So, our garden is now a bit tidier, and I think something like about 50kg of soil and stones have been kept out of landfill. Not bad for a day's work - just about worth missing a bike ride for :)<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Note - the wooden box with the rope handle is a repurposed ammunition box now growing herbs :)</span>Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-23941358389640839712009-03-31T10:45:00.005+01:002009-04-11T15:01:05.812+01:00New shopping opportunities...It's been a busy couple of weeks... not much to report on the waste front but I have taken advantage of a couple of new (to me) shopping opportunities that score well on various green credentials including waste.<br /><br />First up it's the <a href="http://www.h-f-g.co.uk/hfg-farm-shops/">HFG Farm Shop</a> at the local garden centre. Their boast is that for most produce they can measure "farm yards" rather than "food miles" - everything is labelled with its origin and indeed there is lots of stuff from within 10 miles or so, grown on HFG farms. There were also goodies from local bakeries, meat producers and other food businesses. So, local credentials firmly in place, how do they do on packaging? Pretty well I think.<br /><br />Almost everything we wanted veg-wise was unwrapped - including celery, which is uncommon. However, peppers were only available wrapped and on a tray, and herbs were in plastic boxes rather than unwrapped bunches. We also passed on the loose onions to buy a (cheaper) 5kg mesh bag, although I am confident we'll find a use for the bag or maybe just take it back and refill it. None of the manufactured/prepared foods were unwrapped, since they are not processed on the premises - meat, fish, cheese, bread and cakes all have plastic wrap and (for meat/fish) polystyrene trays. So I think we'll stick to the butcher and fishmonger for these. But there is an interesting selection of frozen goods - loose fruit and also bake-yourself croisssants etc. which Alex tells me can be put in your own containers.<br /><br />One slightly offputting aspect was that bicycle access is not good. A cycle path runs right by the entrance, but it's an awkward turn to get in and you then have to run the gauntlet of the car park to find... no cycle parking. However, I sent an email suggesting that they might improve this aspect and got a positive response to say they are about to rethink cycle access so I look forward to it getting easier in future.<br /><br />On to the next new discovery - <a href="http://www.wholefoodplanet.com/">Wholefood Planet</a>. This was flagged up in our county council magazine lately, and is very close to where we live so we decided to check it out. They sell a range of ethically-sourced and environmentally-friendly products, including organic foods and Ecover refills, operate a coffee shop inside the store, and they also employ people with learning difficulties and are committed to fair wages.<br /><br />The shop is located on a small industrial estate, a bit out of the way but well signposted. It's not really near other shops but it's more the sort of place to do a monthly stock-up so that's not a problem. I was delighted to find lots of <a href="http://www.suma.coop/">Suma</a> things on sale - just the sort of thing that I wanted to order direct but was unable to due to the minimum order cost. Prices were very reasonable too, and compared well with organic products on sale elsewhere. I was a bit disappointed by the packaging of these things as it didn't seem very efficient - the packs are very large and flat, which leads to a greater surface area (i.e. amount of packaging) for the same volume of goods. But I understand that the thick polythene used is accepted by Polyprint for recycling, so that is a plus.<br /><br />We'll definitely keep shopping at Wholefood Planet, and will probably go to HFG occasionally, but the greengrocer we usually use is closer to other shops (butcher, baker, Co-op) and we have got to know the people who work there so feel quite loyal to it. But if you are off to the garden centre anyway then it is well worth a look!Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-26114707538372062822009-03-31T10:32:00.005+01:002009-03-31T10:44:41.975+01:00There is such a thing as a free lunchAs reported in today's EDP, <a href="http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED30%20Mar%202009%2020%3A38%3A01%3A690">there is such a thing as a free lunch</a> - at least at one pub near Halesworth in Suffolk:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">Monday lunchtimes, traditionally the quietest time of the week for pubs, at The Plough are now pulling in credit crunch-busters from miles around, thanks to a clever idea by landlords Nick and Debbie Sumner.<br /><br />“On Mondays we always used to clean out the fridges,” said Mrs Sumner. “We were throwing a lot of food away. We said, 'Instead of throwing it away, why not give it away?'<br /><br />“As long as people buy a drink, they can have free food instead of it going to the chickens.”</blockquote>What a great way to reduce food waste and help attract more customers to the pub - community pubs are struggling in this recession and need all the help they can get. And the idea has certainly been successful on that front:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">The couple admitted that the popularity of the offer had escalated through word of mouth, and now necessitated food being prepared solely for the purpose, rather than just using up leftover produce.</blockquote>It can be hard to estimate demand for food, and no pub likes turning hungry customers away when they want to buy food and drink, so you can understand owners erring on the side of caution when buying their food supplies for the week. If you pride yourself on serving fresh food, then perhaps there is a limited amount that can be done with freezing things - so it's good to see a bit of lateral thinking. Let's hope the chickens still benefit from any scraps left behind on plates!Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-38089694038339087102009-03-23T20:32:00.002+00:002011-02-25T13:46:41.415+00:00Zero-waste treatsThis waste reduction lark doesn't have to be all vegetable soup and knit-your-own-yoghurt you know. Recently I found a couple of luxurious and delicious shop-bought puddings which might make you fearful for your waistline, but leave your bin resolutely slim.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gupuds.com/our-puds/posh-ramekin-puds/choc-vanilla-cheesecakes" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://www.gupuds.com/dynamic/image_library/cropped/choc_cheesecake_010_RET_HR.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>First of all, it's <a href="http://www.gupuds.com/our-puds/posh-ramekin-puds/choc-vanilla-cheesecakes">Chocolate and Vanilla Cheesecake</a> from those quirkily-umlauted people at Gü. Small but perfectly formed, these are cute glass pots of indulgence, with foil lids and a simple cardboard box to hold them. The ramekins can be kept and reused, for cooking or other purposes (ideal as tea light holders as they are quite thick).<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cartmelvillageshop.co.uk/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="162" src="http://www.cartmelvillageshop.co.uk/dynamic/image_library/cropped/CA2961_StickyToffee_Ingredients-00010.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Next up it's a true champion of real food, the <a href="http://www.stickytoffeepudding.co.uk/">Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding</a> people. Their puddings come in a sturdy foil tray (easily reused or recycled), cardboard lid, and cardboard sleeve. And if I said that this was one of the most lip-smackingly, plate-scrapingly, more-please-ingly delicious things I have ever tasted in my entire life, that would be no exaggeration.<br />
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Don't get me wrong, I still love cooking and baking, but these two really are well worth a try if you want a real treat without going near a hot stove. And not a bit of plastic packaging in sight.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-36762211672661715702009-03-23T10:43:00.004+00:002009-03-23T21:07:36.871+00:00Something to celebrate!Goodness me - what a lovely surprise waiting for me on Sunday night when I logged on after a busy weekend. Nothing less than an AWARD for this very blog! Even better, it was from one of my favourite bloggers, <a href="http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/">Almost Mrs Average</a> - and of course it was recycled :) That certainly brought a big smile to my face - thank you Mrs A!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dVfQG1XJmkAEtCSDaG3VGOZHKCAajGTdKqU-1HeJXm9n6Gl5b2p4XOSlUmLu-Sn1tf4mx5Ha1nftUSH8t-eGVWXGoQ2fSZK0yu5EvBj3eJTjBE4qM15kauK6HiTkEMgK5y6naEVzKRbW/s400/210320091226.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 112px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dVfQG1XJmkAEtCSDaG3VGOZHKCAajGTdKqU-1HeJXm9n6Gl5b2p4XOSlUmLu-Sn1tf4mx5Ha1nftUSH8t-eGVWXGoQ2fSZK0yu5EvBj3eJTjBE4qM15kauK6HiTkEMgK5y6naEVzKRbW/s400/210320091226.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>On receiving my coveted <a href="http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/2009/03/rubbish-diet-awards-2009.html">Rubbish Blogging Bug</a> award, I went through a succession of feelings... first of all, I was of course pleased and not a little surprised to be mentioned in such illustrious company! Secondly, I was a bit embarrassed, as looking at my blog recently you would not see much evidence of the blogging bug biting - I do have a few half-written posts to be polished up and published, but the public face of the blog has been a bit cobwebby lately. Thirdly, I was inspired and motivated to rectify this situation by the other great blogs and bloggers nominated for the various awards - many are now bookmarked for a good old nosey through their archives when I get chance.<br /><br />But finally, and lingeringly, I can't help but be sad that these awards are prompted by Mrs A's decision to move on from the world of waste blogging. Karen was my first inspiration, a mere five months ago, to try not only a bit of waste reduction but also sharing my successes and frustrations with the online world. I can't claim to be anywhere near the true nirvana of Zero Waste yet, but I am certainly closer than I was before, and by blogging along the way I've made contact with some great people. But it's true, there is a bigger world out there than waste blogging, especially when you put so much time and effort into it. From videos to interviews to full-on soul-searching about motivation and meaning, The Rubbish Diet has always been a rich and varied source of thought-provoking stuff, and I am very appreciative of all the time and effort that must have gone into it.<br /><br />So forget the rambly acceptance speech thanking my poodle's kennel maid and my nursery school teachers - it's a big thank you from me to Mrs A, and a very sincere hope that The Rubbish Diet will still burst into life just occasionally to update us on goings-on at Average Towers. Cheers :)Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-84818784211987358652009-03-11T18:34:00.000+00:002009-03-11T18:34:00.785+00:00PrioritiesA <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7934242.stm">report </a>from Which? suggests that as people try to adjust to the current financial situation, healthy food choices are increasingly taking a back seat to price considerations.<br /><br />You can bet that, if healthy choices are in the back seat, then thoughts about packaging and recycling are in a trailer somewhere, or possibly walking along the hard shoulder, trying to thumb a lift.<br /><br />I have always had a sneaking suspicion that the idea of healthy food being more expensive is bunkum - but I've never actually checked up on it. Recently I read a forum post from someone who said she bought 5 ready meals for £4 and challenged anyone to buy the ingredients for 5 home-cooked meals (for one) on the same budget. Several people responded, but the only way to get close to 80p a meal seemed to be to buy a £1.99 chicken (is that Hugh Fearnely-Whittingstall I can hear crying?) and some potatoes and veg, to have a roast and then various permutations of curry, etc. Even this didn't quite get down to 5 meals for £4.<br /><br />This got me thinking about a comment made by <a href="http://www.myzerowaste.com/">Mrs Average</a> last week about taking the waste message to areas where people are on restricted incomes. How do we do it?<br /><br />This is a really tough one. Should we be trying to bombard everyone with the message at once, when we are already trying to get them to eat healthily in the first place? I am particularly thinking of areas which could be described as <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/food-deserts-depriving-towns-of-fresh-fruit-and-vegetables-764804.html">food deserts</a>, where you could barely get an apple before, let alone now when even more shops are closing. If the local corner shop has their tiny fruit and veg display with some plastic bags of apples, and potatoes that are all but sprouting already, what do you buy? The messages conflict. Buy fresh food! Avoid excess packaging! Don't let produce go off! In the end it's much easier to reach for a microwave meal and not have to think about it.<br /><br />Can we treat these areas the same way as others? Is it unrealistic and out of touch for us to swan in to such an area, yapping about making the most of tired tomatoes and not letting the last of the Sunday roast go to waste, if those two foods are not making an appearance anyway? What if your leftovers are two slices of a frozen pizza and the coleslaw that no-one likes from a KFC bucket? Not many LFHW recipes for those. Is the nature and scale of the food waste problem different in deprived areas, and if so, how? The figures are always presented as if we were a homogenous nation, which we aren't, and I imagine we don't create food waste equally either.<br /><br />If you happen to eat a lot of takeaways and ready meals, are you more likely to bin the leftovers than if you had put the effort in to cook the meal yourself (easy come, easy go)? On the other hand, if you do your best to eke out your weekly food budget, are you more likely to avoid waste than someone with more cash to splash? If the leftover chicken biryani or last slice of the 2-for-1 supermarket pepperoni pizza becomes tomorrow's breakfast because that saves a couple of quid on cereal for the week, that's great for food waste but not so good for a balanced diet - which is the bigger priority? Can we let the healthy eating message take hold first and then come back to food waste - or can we tackle them both together?<br /><br />I don't mean to be stereotypical. I know for sure that not everyone who lives in a deprived or run down area lives on takeaways and ready meals and I know there are people doing their bit to feed themselves and their families well. There are also more affluent people who also eat a lot of junk food! But what I am saying is that if you already have to make a hell of an effort to find healthy food that you can afford, or even just food you can afford full stop, the idea of food waste and packaging waste probably isn't a big priority, and you are probably not going to be too motivated to do anything about it if you are feeling lectured about it.<br /><br />Maybe you watched Jamie Oliver's <a href="http://www.jamiesministryoffood.com/content/jo/home.html">Ministry of Food</a> programme, teaching people in the deprived area of Rotherham to cook simple, healthy meals and then share their new skills and enthusiasm with others. That sort of scheme is brilliant - but what an opportunity to also pass on ideas about reducing food waste at the same time. Not making a big thing of it, but casually mentioning keeping fruit and veg scraps for the compost bin, highlighting that a particular recipe works fine with oldish carrots, or suggesting ideas for what you could do with leftovers of this or that recipe. Even ideas on portion sizes would help, to avoid overbuying - when you have never cooked, relating weights of items to what you actually eat is really hard! The point is that healthy eating and food waste are intertwined and perhaps it's best to address them in that way - together.<br /><br />I'd love to hear other thoughts on this.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-76654869509955282782009-03-08T22:11:00.007+00:002009-03-09T09:57:20.358+00:00LFHW - wrapping it up with soup<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>So, my week of LFHW blogging comes to an end. This morning I was out on a bike ride, much tougher than expected thanks to the incessant headwind for the first 25 miles, and so I had a bit of emergency refuelling to do. This would not have been the case had I not let us get into the parlous state of having NO CAKE in the house when I left. No cake!! I rectified that this afternoon, making the <a href="http://aiming-low.blogspot.com/2009/02/healthy-carrot-or-parsnip-cake.html">parsnip cake</a> that horrified Mrs Green with its lack of butter and eggs. I can confirm it is still very much delicious, proved by the fact that I seem to have eaten four pieces. Oops...<br /><br />So how's our waste total for the last day?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Breakfast:</span> same as Monday, porridge/cereal and tea.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a teabag</span><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Lunch:</span> The other half of yesterday's soup, and an individual fondant fancy wedding cake each, from yesterday.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: paper cake case</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Snacks:</span> banana, cereal/fruit/nut bar, bottle of fruit juice, lots of home made cake and tea.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: banana peel, more teabags.<br />Packaging waste: plastic wrapper, plastic bottle and lid</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dinner:</span> Roast pork fillet, roast potatoes and parsnips, carrots and peas; stewed rhubarb and yoghurt.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a few manky bits off the pot</span><span style="font-style: italic;">atoes, parsnip peelings, rhubarb trimmings</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: thin plastic bag from pork</span>.<br /><br />Compostable food waste: 145g.<br />No non-compostable food waste.<br />Recyclable packaging: 2g (cake cases).<br />Non-recyclable packaging: 45g (plastic bag, wrapper, bottle*).<br /><br />*sadly I just wasn't able to carry the juice bottle home to recycle, and there was no recycling bin in the village where I bought it, so I've counted it as non-recyclable.<br /><br />This brings the total for the week to:<br /><br />Compostable food waste: 1890g<br />Non-compostable food waste: 433g<br />Recyclable packaging: 1282g<br />Non-recyclable packaging: 133g<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Grand total: 3738g</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvpJe8lOaZpXpOhDub7aoyjuUsU8MluNWQ6IbsDDQMRvUa7fmibpx8QHQoiYM4O-ZjywfMxyAEuTjKcQ6yEdXNJrIxV4s0zsFupB70oacYK31oZSCvcJ4aywcXkwnxp16dQFIOSLzIfGM/s1600-h/foodwaste.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 187px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvpJe8lOaZpXpOhDub7aoyjuUsU8MluNWQ6IbsDDQMRvUa7fmibpx8QHQoiYM4O-ZjywfMxyAEuTjKcQ6yEdXNJrIxV4s0zsFupB70oacYK31oZSCvcJ4aywcXkwnxp16dQFIOSLzIfGM/s320/foodwaste.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310953274762406658" border="0" /></a><br /><br />So, of all my directly food-related waste, 85% (by weight) has been composted or recycled. I could only make serious inroads on that with something like a bokashi bin (worth it for less than 500g?). I hold my hands up to one "could have been eaten but wasn't" item (the sauerkraut) but overall I think those numbers are not too bad at all. The secret? Just a little bit of forward thinking:<br /><ul><li>Plan it! Think about your shopping before you go, and think in terms of meals rather than individual items. Look for links between meals to help you use all of an ingredient if you can't buy exactly how much you want.</li></ul><ul><li>Get friendly with your freezer. Use it to store up whole meals or excess ingredients (if they will freeze), and use it to help you save time and effort through cook-once-eat-twice thinking.</li></ul><br />That's my LFHW week over, but <a href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/norfolk">the campaign continues</a>, and if you can count on anything at all you can count on there being more low-waste and leftovers recipes appearing on this blog as it continues!Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-12290463678847806512009-03-07T15:12:00.002+00:002009-03-08T22:40:54.098+00:00LFHW day 6 - quick and simple<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Another night out tonight - it's a friend's wedding and we are off to the reception to join the celebrations. What was a little bit of a dilemma (lots things to do before going out early evening, but we need to eat as we know it's just nibbles tonight) is neatly solved by the second helpings of chicken and chick pea casserole I made the other night. Heated through, it's definitely quick and easy, and will see us through a few glasses of champagne I am sure!<br /><br />Lunchtime also saw our old friend soup make an appearance. The chicken stock from earlier in the week, plus an onion, carrot, wrinkly potato and the floppy yellow middle bit of the celery; the last of the chorizo and the shreds of meat from the stock bones add a bit of protein, and some parsley from the windowsill adds colour and a bit of freshness. Mop it up with some slightly stale bread from last weekend, and that's a brilliant lunch.<br /><br />That makes our food related waste stack up as follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Breakfast:</span> same as Monday, porridge/cereal and tea.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a teabag</span><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Lunch:</span> Soup and bread, fruit, home made flapjack.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: veg peelings</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">, chicken fat and the cooked-out veg from the stock</span>.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: paper bag from the bread, plastic celery wrapper, plastic chorizo tray.<br /><br /></span>Compostable food waste: 95g (including paper bag).<br />Non-compostable food waste: 145g (chicken fat and the stock veg it contaminated).<br />No recyclable packaging.<br />Non-recyclable packaging: 10g (celery bag, chorizo tray).Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-48935399457293561252009-03-06T17:22:00.002+00:002009-03-08T22:40:18.921+00:00LFHWEO<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I'm loving food, hating waste, and eating out tonight :) As I don't want to embarrass my friends I shall try to refrain from quizzing the waitress about the restaurant's food waste policies...<br /><br />Thanks to my inability to get bored by eating the same thing for breakfast (porridge) and lunch (salad) every day, you can work out my food waste habits today from the rest of this week's posts! Home alone, Mark (not invited to the girls' night out...) cooked pasta and tomato sauce and created some further veg trimmings.<br /><br />Compostable food waste: 320g.<br />No non-compostable food waste.<br />No recyclable packaging.<br />No non-recyclable packaging.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-76999792871626360582009-03-05T19:39:00.005+00:002009-03-09T09:56:57.677+00:00LFHW day 4 - stock it to 'em<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>An old favourite for tea tonight - <a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1013/chicken-chickpea-and-lemon-casserole">chicken, chickpea and lemon casserole</a>. When we bought the chicken from the butcher, rather than four ready-skinned and boned thighs we got two leg quarters. So not only do we have enough meat to make double quantities of the casserole, but I also chucked the bones in with an onion, celery and bay leaves to make yummy stock for the weekend's soup. As I am apparently quite useless at boning chicken, there was plenty of meat left on said bones! So, what might have done us for one meal if we had simply roasted the chicken, has stretched to 3 with the addition of a few extra, cheap ingredients (vegetables).<br /><br /><br />How about food waste today?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Breakfast:</span> same as Monday, porridge/cereal and tea.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a teabag</span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Lunch:</span> Salad again (but no more manky celery, hurrah), orange, cake. While ferreting in the fridge I found a very old jar of sauerkraut (a phase I went through...) sadly past its best.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: veg peelings and seeds</span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>,<span style="font-style: italic;"> sauerkraut.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: glass jar and lid.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Snacks:</span> apple, banana, nuts.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: banana peel, apple core</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dinner:</span> See above!<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: leek and broccoli trimmings, lemon pips, onion and garlic skin, chicken bones, skin and fat</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: stock cube foil wrapper, thin plastic bag from chicken</span>.<br /><br />Compostable food waste: 380g (including 75g sauerkraut!).<br />Non-compostable food waste: 280g (all from the chicken).<br />Recyclable packaging: 540g - glass, metal lids, foil.<br />Non-recyclable packaging: 5g.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-27717322923277816092009-03-04T21:30:00.004+00:002009-03-05T19:40:55.470+00:00LFHW day 3 - the F word<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>No, not food. And certainly nothing to do with <a href="http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/f-word/">Mr Ramsay</a>. Freezer!<br /><br />In the campaign against food waste, the freezer is a staunch ally. It takes the rush and repetition out of having leftovers that need using, and lets you take advantage of all those BOGOF bargains to help keep the shopping bills down.<br /><br />We had a (planned) raid on the freezer tonight. Dinner was a warming <a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3949/toulouse-sausage-and-butter-bean-casserole">sausage casserole</a> (very welcome - it was freezing as I cycled home), with the stars of the show being some rather tasty venison sausages from <a href="http://www.pickeringsofnorwich.co.uk/">Pickering's</a>. Now, there are two great things about Pickering's. One, they have an incredible selection of unusual and delicious sausages, and two, they always seem to be doing "buy 2lb get 1lb free" on their Norwich Market stall. (Oh yes - and they wrap them in paper! Make that three great things. I'll have to ask about containers next time...) No matter how much of a banger fiend you are, you'd be pushed to get through 3lb (about 21 sausages) before they went off, so this is where you need your trusty freezer. It would be an absolute crime for these sausages to end up as food waste.<br /><br />We split the 1lb packs and find that 3-4 sausages squeeze perfectly into a takeaway carton, which stacks nicely in the freezer. Margarine tubs are also OK but they can get brittle when frozen so take care. You can write on the top with a chinagraph pencil to remind you what's inside (you wouldn't want to mix up your Aunt Ednas and your Cornish Tiddlers, would you?) and what date it was frozen. As you can imagine, 6 lots of sausages lasts us a while!<br /><br />Our freezer holds all sorts of goodies. There are frozen herbs from the summer, lemon juice, bread, home baked cakes for the week, and even grated white chocolate from some previous cooking adventure. In the autumn there were stewed apples ready for making crumble, and I've also done bananas when there has been an end-of-the-day bargain on offer. Sometimes it also holds meals where we've deliberately made double. If I'd thought to get two lots of sausages out to defrost yesterday we could have done that tonight! And the best thing is, your freezer <a href="http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/appliances/refrigerators.html">runs most efficiently when it's full</a>. So get filling!<br /><br />Just time for a quick overview of today on the food waste front:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Breakfast:</span> same as Monday, porridge/cereal and tea. I also found that one of the oranges had gone mouldy in the fruit bowl (only bought on Saturday), so I halved it - ate the good half with breakfast and composted the mouldy one. Tasted fine!<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a teabag</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, half an orange</span><span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: empty honey jar, seal strip from new one.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Lunch:</span> Back to my usual salad today. Unfortunately the outer stems of the new head of celery are not good - hollow and brown inside. I salvaged the top half of two, and will see what the rest is like tomorrow.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: veg peelings and seeds</span>,<span style="font-style: italic;"> 2 half celery sticks</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Snacks:</span> lots of home made cake marking a colleague leaving for 2 months. Due to the cake I didn't eat all my fruit and nuts today :)<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: banana peel</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dinner:</span> See above!<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: leek trimmings, green bean tops and tails, garlic skin</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: stock cube foil wrapper, bean tin</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> (plus paper sausage wrapper at the weekend), beer bottle and lid</span>.<br /><br />Compostable food waste: 340g<br />No food waste to go in the bin.<br />Recyclable packaging: 625g - glass, metal lids, tin and foil. Actually the jar and lid will be saved for reuse during jam season!<br />No non-recyclable packaging.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-42656832900296901842009-03-03T19:11:00.006+00:002009-03-05T19:40:57.875+00:00LFHW day 2<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Today's LFHW launch went really well - some supportive launching-type words from <a href="http://www.galtonblackiston.com/">Galton Blackiston</a> and people from the council and WRAP, and lots of mingling. I had extremely interesting chats about the <a href="http://www.broadland.gov.uk/environment/2615.asp">Broadland food waste collection trial</a>, ways to improve my compost (air and cardboard is what I need), favourite leftovers recipes, and how this scheme is going to work. I also managed to ask Galton Blackiston about the professional kitchen and food waste, specifically the issue of <a href="http://aiming-low.blogspot.com/2009/02/food-waste-professionals-opinion.html">binning "imperfect" food</a> I blogged before. He was pretty much convinced that the Masterchef example I gave was dramatised to make good TV, and that professional chefs in a real kitchen would not waste food in such a sweeping way. Reassuring to hear! He seems very committed to top quality food from local sources and with a minimum of environmental impact, and having been lucky enough to eat at <a href="http://www.morstonhall.com/">Morston Hall</a>, I can report that the food quality is not in the least impaired by paying attention to these things!<br /><br />I also appreciatively collected a cotton shopper bag (yes, another one!) containing goodies such as a fridge thermometer, pasta portion sizer, recipe book and cards, and best of all two <a href="http://www.freshpod.co.uk/">Freshpods</a>. These are now lurking in my fruit bowl and salad drawer, guarding against the deterioration of my fruit and veg. The lunch provided was rather tasty, and I just hope that any leftovers were offered around to the event's public visitors! By the time I left, the stalls seemed to be drawing in all sorts of people who were passing through the Forum, for composting advice, food waste freebies, and of course loads of advice, which is excellent.<br /><br />One of the most interesting discussions I had was actually with another invitee, about how to engage people and what sort of people we reach with these events. He put forward the point that the vast majority of people at the Forum today were middle class, intelligent, and almost certainly already engaged with recycling. Are these the people who are wasting a third of the food they buy? How can we best get through to a wider selection of people - particularly in some of the more deprived areas? We agreed that the best way is to take the information to the people, rather than expecting them to come to you and ask for it, but my personal view is that there is also no harm in starting with an "easy win". That is, talking to the people who are ready to engage and just need information as opposed to persuasion. I always reckon that starting with a bit of success boosts morale and fires you up to go and tackle something a bit more challenging.<br /><br />All that said, this was just the launch event, and most of the people there, at least initially, were people who had been invited due to the job that they do or the organisation they are with - so that is one reason for it not being an especially varied audience. I am sure there are plans to further develop the LFHW campaign here in Norfolk, and I look forward to seeing what they are! Kudos to the Norfolk Waste Partnership team and WRAP/LFHW guys for a great launch.<br /><br />How has our food waste day been?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Breakfast:</span> same as yesterday, porridge/cereal and tea.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a teabag.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Lunch:</span> a couple of sandwiches at the event, with the rest of it later in the afternoon at my desk, consisting of rice cakes, peanut butter, a pepper, a tomato, and an orange.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: pepper stem and seeds, orange peel</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: rice cakes wrapper, paper salt sachet found in my desk drawer.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Snacks:</span> an apple and a banana, some almonds, and a creme egg.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: banana peel, apple core</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, foil</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dinner:</span> Chicken stir fry with cabbage, carrot, onion and pepper, sauce and rice.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: cabbage stalk, onion</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> and carrot</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> peel, pepper seeds and stem</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: thin plastic bag from the chicken, empty sauce sachet</span>.<br /><br />Compostable food waste: 290g<br />No food waste to go in the bin!<br />Recyclable packaging: 5g paper and foil<br />Non-recyclable packaging: 35g plasticKatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-45967610174999958482009-03-03T08:24:00.005+00:002009-03-03T10:02:17.446+00:00Fridge invaders!<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Oh my goodness - there seems to be a strange man rootling around in <a href="http://wastefreealex.blogspot.com/">Alex</a>'s fridge!<br /><br />But it's OK, it's only Wally Webb from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/local_radio/">BBC Radio Norfolk</a>. He's visiting her to talk about food waste and the big LFHW launch on Norwich today, and to check that she practices what she preaches (I know for a fact she does, so no worries there). I'm sure she'll blog it herself later on, so I just wanted to say well done Alex on being a model zero-food-waster for the county this morning! :)Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-83477779576842374042009-03-02T21:43:00.012+00:002009-03-03T10:02:06.674+00:00My perfect waste campaign... LFHW day 1<a style="" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 111px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUBleivQ7HvqKvBw_u95rLSqku2K6C_eLl2s9W5ivcNcZApLN3KkcpyC8pesfuX2vv2j7joiO6FF0VHFuaNt-9JMPS_ah4dhIqhv58RQeZwL3szyvbK2aRtb4yfHCAgAtChG6HZ9jTy-4/s200/love+food+hate+waste.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308877267612314818" border="0" /></a>Well, it's true. I <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">love </span>food, and I hate waste!<br /><br />As tomorrow sees the launch of the <a href="http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/norfolk">LFHW campaign in Norfolk</a>, and I have been lucky enough to bagsy an invitation, I will have loads of information on reducing food waste coming up on tomorrow's blog.<br /><br />I have also decided that this will be my own LFHW week, and I'll tally the waste we create with particular attention to food. First it's worth saying a bit about the start of the week, which in food terms is the weekend as that's when we shop.<br /><br />On Saturday morning I sat and planned the food for the week - a mix of old favourites (stir fry, tomato and bacon pasta) and new recipes to try (<a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7692/white-fish-with-spicy-beans-and-chorizo">white fish with spicy beans and chorizo</a>, <a href="http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3949/toulouse-sausage-and-butter-bean-casserole">sausage and butter bean casserole</a>), plus any <a href="http://aiming-low.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-1-baking-and-beer.html">baking</a> I want to do. This gets translated into a list and we go out shopping - to the greengrocer, fishmonger, baker (all the same shop!), butcher, and then to the supermarket for tinned and dry goods and non-food. Using the list, we should find that we don't overbuy - buying things loose from independent shops also helps with this. Over the weekend I baked banana flapjacks with some almost-past-it nanas, and made a big pan of vegetable and pasta soup to do for lunch both days.<br /><br />On to today, the start of my LFHW focus, and it went something like this:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(153, 153, 255);">Breakfast:</span> porridge with fruit, nuts and honey, and a fruit tea. For hubby it's weetabix.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: a teabag.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 204, 0);">Lunch:</span> I have a big salad with spinach, cucumber, celery, pepper, carrot, cherry tomatoes, tuna, and sweet chilli sauce, followed by an orange and one of the fruity oat bars I baked last week (packed in a reusable tub). Him indoors doesn't do packed lunches, not that I haven't tried! It's usually a supermarket sandwich, yogurt and fruit, but today he was at a meeting with lunch included.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: inedible vegetable and fruit bits (peels, cores, seeds, etc.)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: celery wrapper.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Snacks:</span> an apple and a banana, and some nuts (a small pot, filled from a big pack at home). Mark manages to munch some cake.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: banana peel, apple core</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: empty almond bag.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Dinner:</span> haddock fillet with spicy beans, chorizo and cabbage, crusty bread, then yogurt and some flapjack. Clean plates all round apart from the scaly haddock skin!<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Food-related waste: tough ribs from the cabbage's outer leaves, onion and garlic peel, fish skin</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Packaging waste: tomato and bean tins, plastic yogurt pot and lid, thin plastic bag from the fish, foil yogurt lid</span>.<br /><br />As you can see, there is plenty of "unavoidable food waste" (i.e. non-edible bits), but the vast majority of this (320g) can be composted. Just the fish skin (8g) has to go in the bin. Of the packaging, the tins and foil (110g) can be recycled, but the plastics (38g) can't.<br /><br /><br />One thing I do know is that there will be less compostable waste for me tomorrow as the launch event includes a buffet (suitably low-waste I hope...)Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-38238666704803804112009-03-01T19:09:00.000+00:002009-03-02T22:36:08.495+00:00Waste vs. waistAs part of my efforts to get fitter and healthier, I'm a member of a <a href="http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/">diet and fitness website</a>, and often read the forums on there. I have noticed that when people ask for food ideas, there is recommendation of home cooked food as well as "diet" ready meals, which is brilliant to see. A recent thread on what to have for dinner for about 300 calories not only gathered suggestions of Weight Watchers ready meals, Quorn cottage pie, boil in the bag fish and rice, and other pre-packed stuff, but also ideas including fresh fish and meat, and recipes for vegetable soup, butternut squash casserole, and Spanish omelette.<br /><br />This must also mean a reduction in packaging. Ready meals have at least a plastic dish, film lid and cardboard or plastic box/wrapper. Supermarket "healthy goodies" often come in acres of plastic, sometimes wrapped separately in individual portions "for calorie control". Fresh fruit and veg, however, can be had with minimal packaging, as can meat and fish if you venture beyond the fluorescent-lit halls of Tesco et al. So it's great to see people recommending these things to each other - I think that is generally much more successful than a finger-wagging nanny state - right, wastebloggers? :)<br /><br />Of course, it's not an absolute link. You can buy plenty of chocolate in recyclable paper and foil, and wine and beer are not known for their unrecyclable packaging either, to give two examples. But I have found that the two things are often mutually supportive:<br /><ul><li>I make fewer frivolous/impulse purchases, and those I do make often involve fruit.<br /></li><li>I make more effort to buy in bulk, and use small pots and tubs to take what I need to work or out for the day.</li><li>I bake my own cakey snacks which are tastier and more satisfying than the shop alternatives.</li><li>I plan the week's food in advance, and don't fall victim to "I can't be bothered, let's order a takeaway" syndrome.</li><li>I know how much food I should be eating, and I don't have lots of extra things hanging around the house being tempting.<br /></li></ul>I've said before, I do have the luxury of no picky eaters to feed, and time for planning, shopping and cooking (although by no means do I slave over a hot shopping list for hours) - not everyone is in the same position. But this time last year you didn't find me cycling to the local shops for my fresh produce (more health benefits!) or taking half an hour on a Saturday morning to look up a few recipes and decide which old favourites are coming up this week. These are small changes I've made that are really working.<br /><br />I don't think what I do is a particular hassle. And if it has double benefits, then surely it's even more worth it! What other benefits are you all finding from your waste reduction efforts?Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-383699027136655921.post-79015129230130183072009-02-28T21:24:00.004+00:002009-03-01T18:12:14.827+00:00Fab winter warmer from the end of the veg drawerThis is almost turning into a food blog, but here's another delicious recipe that makes great use of leftover / slightly past-it veg. We had it for dinner yesterday and found it very filling and satisfying. Flippin' cheap, too. It works brilliantly with potato, carrot and parsnip as here, but why not try sweet potato, squash, celeriac, add a chilli, bit of ginger, some chick peas, spinach... use your imagination!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">Winter warmer root vegetable and lentil casserole</span><br /><br />Serves 4<br /> <br />A little sunflower or vegetable oil <br /> 1 onion, chopped <br /> 2 garlic cloves, smashed or chopped<br /> 2 med baking potatoes, diced (I scrub them and leave the skin on)<br />3-4 carrots, diced<br /> 2 parsnips, diced<br /> 2 tbsp curry paste<br />1.5 pints/800ml vegetable stock <br /> 100-150g red lentils <br /> fresh coriander, roughly chopped <br /> <br />Fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Add the root veg, curry paste, and a splash of stock, stir well, and cook for 10 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the stock and lentils, stir, bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer and cook (covered) for another 10-15 minutes. Take the lid off for the last few minutes to allow it to thicken, adding the coriander at this point to keep the fresh taste. Save some for sprinkling on top if you feel like being fancy pants.<br /><br />Delicious with a dollop of natural yogurt, mango chutney, naan breads or chapattis (or pittas or tortillas...). It has a beautifully sweet-spicy taste with the freshness of coriander, and the comforting texture of root vegetables.Katyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15731873523701603225noreply@blogger.com3