The Sustainalist - Sustainability 101
Now this is a big one for me. I LOVE food. My love language is food. I’m an avid cook and baker. I’ve rarely had anyone complain about my food, and they all come back for more. Everything I do with food is done with the utmost love for it as a whole.
It feeds the soul, it feeds the body, and it makes people happy. What more could I ask for?
Hence, all things food-related are right up my alley.
So, here are my first few tips on how you can make things last longer, reduce food waste, and shift your mindset:
No dirty knives, licked forks, or spoons in things!
Every time we lick something, breathe on it, or cough and sneeze into the air (hello to those who have learned nothing from Covid!), we spread germs and bacteria. It’s normal - the bacteria thing, not the missing basic hygiene protocols of course! Putting a licked spoon or “crumbled” knife into jars or pots, is not only unhygienic and disgusting for those with whom we share food, but also causes that mould can form much, much faster on things.
Now, how often have you discarded a jar of marmalade or jam because it moulded? How often did something go bad and get thrown away?
Simply make it a habit to use a clean spoon for scooping out your marmalade, honey, chocolate spread, or Marmite every time you enjoy it. This will “keep it clean” and prolong the lifetime of such food items greatly - spread and butter included.
It’s also much more appetising, as I shared above, for those who share that jar with you. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t fancy having another person's butter and bread crumbs in my food, or worse, meat remnants on their cutlery that end up on my bread.
If you’re like me and don’t use up a preserve quickly, keeping it clean AND storing it in the fridge helps greatly to keep it over a long time, reducing food waste.
I apply this to all things fruit preserve, for example, or my pickles. Gosh, I love my pickles, but there are times when I just don’t consume them quickly.
Now, there’s the “best before” thinking that I need to address here quickly:
“Best Before” Does Not Mean “Bad After”!
The “best before” label is just a thing to cover the producing industry’s bums in case a complaint comes up. It does NOT mean something goes bad on the day it “expires”.
Here’s an easy way to look at stuff:
- Is it made with loads of salt or sugar? Yes? It will most likely survive Armageddon.
- Is it made with loads of vinegar, or is it even vinegar? Yes? Again, it will most likely survive Armageddon.
- Is it fermented? Yes? There you go, Armageddon.
Think of:
- Soy sauce & Tabasco = fermented, salty (and Tabasco needs at least THREE years before it’s bottled and reaches our supermarket shelves!)
- Fruit preserves = at least 55g sugar, more often than not MUCH more
- Honey = pure sugar. Honey only crystallises over time but is still edible and as tasty as in its non-crystalline form.
- Pickled cucumbers = vinegar, salt, and sugar
There is no need to throw such things away when they reach their Best Before!
Nowadays, pretty much everything we buy has added preservatives on top of that, which is often unnecessary and, in many cases, very unhealthy for the body. But I won’t go into that here. So, with added preservatives, things last even longer, especially when you execute some simple hygiene aspects.
Make it a habit to know more about your food, what’s in it, how it’s made, and think about how our ancestors did it, and you will soon find yourself preserving more food than you throw away.
Just a note: It’s NOT okay to scrape off mould from anything and still eat it. That goes for bread as well as any preserve. Our grandparents and those before them might have done that, but don’t forget that food was so scarce in those war generations that they simply had to do it.
We have the luxury today to throw it away and not risk our health.
However, why not simply follow the more mindful and simple rules to prevent spoiled food?
Bread and Toast Tips
Here’s another tip that has worked wonders for decades, concerning the mundane and yet so transmundane bread:
When you’re not consuming bread quickly enough, make it a habit to freeze it in portions when you get it. This way, you can simply take your two slices of bread in the morning, pop them into a toaster, and bring them to life again.
Or, if you’re “anti-freezing”, simply store toast in the fridge and be careful to only touch the slices you need with very clean hands. I don’t know why, but toast seems to be one of those things that already mould when you just look at it, doesn’t it? One way to slow that process down is to store it in the fridge. It gets toasted anyways, doesn’t it?
If you’re consuming “real” bread 🤭😁🤷♀️🤣 (sourdough, etc.), buy smaller loaves or plan for meals that consume bread more.
I sometimes make a tomato-bread salad, which is a beautiful tomato salad made with balsamic vinegar and good olive oil. Then, I cut the bread into chunks, toast them in a pan or the oven until they’re like croutons, and throw them into the tomato salad. The salad needs to be consumed ASAP before the bread has a chance to get totally soggy, but it’s absolutely divinely delicious!
Have beans on “toast” with that bread, or make something that we Germans call “Strammer Max,” which translates to “Strapping Max” (don’t ask me why, I have no clue why it’s called that).
It’s a dish made with bread, eggs, ham, butter, and sometimes ketchup at its base, and it’s one of the most delicious things. I know I am vegan-tarian, but I can tell you that that is one of the things I miss dearly. I’ve tried to recreate it, but it doesn’t work properly without the ham, to be honest.
Bread Leftovers? Don’t waste the food!
When you know you’re not eating the end pieces or always have leftovers, why not drying them? When you have collected enough (stored in a dry place, in a paper bag, fully dried), simply turn them in the food processor into bread crumbs for your cooking!
Burnt Toast? Just Don’t.
Watch your toast and don’t let it burn. I’m not sure how this is even possible with today’s toaster mechanics, but it happens regularly all around me. I unfortunately live in a built-up area (I’m more the “lonely cottage with no neighbours in a 1.5-mile radius” type), and every freaking day, fire alarms go off. Then the usual ripping the door open and sounds of something being thrown into the garden can be heard. Every. Day. Like clockwork.
I’m really, really baffled by this.
There are a couple of easy fixes:
- Stay with your toast and watch it. When you know you burn it regularly, make it a habit not to. It’s your responsibility. Also, in really bad cases, it can cause fires, and no-one wants their house burnt down, right?
- If it’s not too badly burned, scrape it off with a knife. It’s still edible.
- If it’s a little too dark for your taste but edible, scrape it off a bit more and throw it out for the birds.
- If it’s burnt to a crisp, DO NOT throw it out for the birds! That’s a very bad habit, and you are actively harming animals. Just because they eat it doesn’t mean it’s good for them!
But the easiest fix is, and I have to say this again: Just don’t burn your toast. It’s your responsibility. Simple as that.
Now, that’s all for today. Happy reducing food waste! 😁🤘
See you next time.
With love, compassion, and courage,
Heike
The Sustainalist
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