It can get a little ugly when I go to the farmer’s market. Just this ugly: These are actual (greenhouse-grown) peppers bought at The Durham Farmer’s Market this past weekend. No photoshopping, I promise. Despite their shar-pei appearance, they were delicious. Proving once again that food doesn’t have to look perfect or homogeneous to taste [...]
Buongiorno, friends. I’m at the Barilla’s International Forum on Food and Nutrution. I just participated in a panel on food waste, which was pretty fascinating. First, it was heartening to experience so many intelligent people considering the topic of wasted food. Second, the level of research on the topic in Europe is impressive. And the [...]
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 [...]
There’s a new app to help New Yorkers find and patronize restaurants that donate unused food to City Harvest. Perfect! — — Food deserts present a real problem these days. This piece addresses the different solutions, from Walmart to urban agriculture to food recovery. — — You want tips on how to avoid waste and [...]
Six years ago, I went gleaning for the first time, gathering sweet potatoes in rural North Carolina. A year ago, I went through a brief training so as to coordinate future gleaning outings. Yesterday, I got to supervise one such outing–gleaning sweet potatoes, of course (it is North Carolina). The volunteers were mostly a troupe [...]
Hot off the press: New data on retail and home produce waste from our friends at the USDA’s Economic Research Service. I’ll break this down further in a future post, but in the meantime, take a gander. — — Exciting News: The NY Times Online reports that The Grocery Manufacturers Association is planning a three-year initiative to [...]
Hey there! Come on in–make yourself at home. Help yourself to a drink and there’s food over there. Just don’t take more than you’ll eat! You know…because it’s a party for a book about…yeah, you know. — This day is a happy one–celebrating the release of American Wasteland in paperback. Or as I like to [...]
Two more words: New cover The book comes out Sept. 1 and, as always, you can preorder…
This past week, I gave a series of talks at Mario Batali’s restaurants in LA and Las Vegas. It was an interesting, eye-opening experience. I learned a fair amount about how restaurants view waste and, hopefully, the warm, professional staff learned a bit about the importance of reducing waste. The restaurant group is already on [...]
Today, I’m in L.A., giving a talk to the staff from two Mario Batali-owned restaurants. And I’ll be doing the same for the next three days, speaking twice in both L.A. and Las Vegas. I’m excited about the opportunity, as it’s a fabulous chance to communicate the importance of waste reduction to some of the culinary [...]
