When life gets cold…make pesto. With the night air approaching freezing in North Carolina, my backyard basil recently began browning. I picked all remaining leaves with some two-year-old help. Of course–much to my chagrin–I was a little too late for some of the basil… After harvesting our year’s pine nut crop procuring plenty of pine [...]
I just returned home from an energizing visit to New York City. While there, I got to take part in two book-related events, appear on the Leonard Lopate Show, talk shop with many fascinating folks (including a Freegan spokesperson) and even catch up with some friends. My first event was part presentation, part panel discussion. [...]
Rosie Noden decided that her children and their Kent, Ohio peers needed to become better connected to their food. To achieve that, she and other volunteers recently built a community and school garden at Walls Elementary. Where the story gets even happier, though, is that the school will begin separating and composting food waste from [...]
This Friday I made gazpacho, or the cold soup of Spain, as it’s known in my house (from a favorite menu description). The soup served as the final destination for many of my end-of-season garden tomatoes. I think the soup will enter our regular rotation next summer, as it’s easy, tasty and a nice way to [...]
Come on, Cleveland! You’re telling me you toss so much food on the ground at ballgames that you’ve essentially trained sea gulls to come on game days?! First Drew Carey, now this? On the plus side, I’d really like to see a live eagle swoop, so I hope the fireworks don’t disperse the gulls. — — Here’s Makes [...]
Gary Oppenheimer is an avid gardener. A master gardener, in fact. When Gary became director of the West Milford (NJ) Community Garden, he found that others left a lot of produce on the vines. He created a committee, called Ample Harvest, to find food pantries to which they could donate this healthy excess. It turned out they couldn’t find [...]
…Earth Day. Weather permitting, I’m going to spend it outside and away from the computer. If I’m lucky, I might even get my hands into some real earth–I need to get my summer seedlings in the ground. I hope you’re able to do the same! (the outside part, at least) I’ll be back with a [...]
This Tuesday, I wrote about online food swapping sites. Another such site, Veggie Trader, has only been operating for a few weeks, but is already creating some buzz. Rob Anderson, one of the site’s Portland-based creators, was nice enough to answer a few questions: How’d you come up with the idea for Veggie Trader? A [...]
Funky things are happening with the plumbing down under. While I’m still reeling from the clockwise/counter-clockwise toilet flush hoax, Southern hemisphere inventors have moved on. Two recent creations offer solutions to the inefficiency of washing food down the drain. First, a 9-year-old New Zealand boy invented a contraption that allows you to dump food waste [...]
Believe it or not, another year is finished (again?). As we celebrate 2009′s beginning, let’s resolve to reduce food waste. Because I doubt I can communicate my thoughts any better, here’s an op-ed I wrote in 2006. In addition to recycling ideas from two years ago (recycle, reduce, reuse, right?!), I’m making a few new [...]
