Saturday, October 1, 2011

Waste Not, Want Not

Like most people of her generation, Grandma was never one to let anything go to waste. Especially when it came to food. If fruit got a bit too ripe to eat, she'd peel it, puree it, and dehydrate it into homemade fruit leather. Any leftover vegetable trimmings or meat carcass/bones went into a bag in the freezer for future soup stock. Bread that went a bit dry was cut-up and frozen for future puddings or stuffings. Seriously everything in her kitchen was eaten, stored, or processed before it went truly bad.

But the secrets to her lack of food waste weren't earth shattering: she had a deep freeze that she used religiously, she kept close tabs on her food expiration dates, and, more importantly, she never purchased or harvested more food than she could use.

I was raised with the "if in doubt, throw it out" mantra so as a young adult, I had to learn to identify when food was truly bad verses just a bit unattractive, and had to teach myself how to purchase, store, and process food properly. These lessons were a way of life for people like my Grandma; but sadly, some of us seem to have lost or devalued those same learnings. I hope very much to reverse that trend.

It was with these thoughts and a few extra hours this morning that I set out to finally make bread from some overripe bananas I've been collecting. 

A few month's worth of overripe bananas that I've been stashing away in my freezer

On first glance, yeah, they are totally ugly. But look at the potential underneath.

Shucked bananas ready for mashing

After mixing these babies with butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, I had myself three loaves of a very tasty treat.

Finished banana bread, warm from the oven

By not throwing out those bananas, I not only saved them from the landfill, I also gained some very delicious bread. By not wasting, I actually want for even less. Pretty cool, huh?

For me it is less about cost savings and more about being less wasteful. I see myself as the steward of what I buy and so I feel responsible for how it is used. If I make a mistake and buy too much of something and then don't use it, I feel like my error costs someone else the benefit of using that resource. As if I've upset the balance of taking only what's needed and leaving the rest for someone else.

How do you feel about buying and using food? What methods do you use to help limit your own food waste?