In food-waste-to-energy news: If the state of California processed all of its 5.9 million tons of food waste by anaerobic digestion, it would produce enough energy to power 75 percent of the Bay Area. This according to an East Bay Municipal Utility District study.
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Staying in California, The California bill to allow hotel or catering event customers to take home the leftovers food they’ve paid for (sounds like a no-brainer, to me, but I’m not impartial) is nearing approval.
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I just read about Fresh Pods, plastic contraptions that supposedly quadruple the lifespan of produce when placed in your ‘fridge. I have no idea how they work…or whether they do.
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I think if we grew our own food, we’d be less likely to waste it. Plus, we read many places that a classic grass yard is like a carbon Bigfoot. Hence, the idea (and book) Food Not Lawns, a nice play on the hunger relief movement Food Not Bombs.
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Did you know we’re wasting wild asparagus? Or at least missing out. Get on it, America! Start foraging.
3 Comments
Be careful assuming that asparagus is wild. I grew up in farm country and there are a lot of apparently wild ditches full of raspberries, asparagus, daylilies (edible AND beautiful), mint, etc that actually belong to someone, who is going to be mad if some city people snag all of the fruit before they get it harvested.
Hiding the wild asparagus with artful planting of tallgrass is an art form around my home town. Also sticking WARNING PESTICIDE signs up where nothing actually got sprayed.
p.s. this weekend was a big parade & festival in our neighborhood. I put out trash/recycling buckets (I sort them myself) and also a compostables bucket – we’re going to have to pull a lot of sticks out of food served on a stick, mostly mangos, but people were really good with the compostable bucket otherwise.
Dang city folk! I promise to be careful with my assumptions. That said, how is a forager to know whether something’s truly wild or planted?
The “Warning Pesticide” sign idea is a great one. I wish that would scare off pests, too!
Glad to hear that the festival composting went so well.
re fresh pods:
When produce is shipped all over the world, it is done so in containers that slow ripening e.g. by the ethylene gas given off by fruits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripening
One might imagine that similar things are used for these fresh pods.