I issued a “Waste-No-Food Challenge” on May 25th. The challenge was officially only for 30 days. But here we are at day 39, and I am not looking to dive back into my formerly wasteful ways.
How are we doing? Pretty Good. The problem is that it’s not something to simply master once and be done with.
It’s never ending.
I personally like a project with a beginning, middle and end. The never ending aspect of this challenge is harder than I thought it would be.
It seems that as soon as we’ve eaten our leftovers, more shows up. It’s like some sort of bizarro Star Trek Tribble–like phenomenon. If I remember correctly, those furry little guys were born pregnant. You just couldn’t stop them.
I must stay vigilant.
Jonathan Bloom, who writes the Wasted Food blog wrote about “delayed waste” the other day.
“Most of us Delay Waste. ‘Waste delaying’ can take the form of saving leftovers you know you won’t eat or leaving bad food in the fridge.
This classic guilt avoidance tactic was the reason I hadn’t thrown away that freezerburnt iceberg of orange sherbet. I felt bad that I’d let it get that way and avoided the dirty work of dumping it down the drain.”
Waste delay huh? Well, at least I know what to call it now.
I currently have some homemade hummus in my fridge that’s at least a month old. I need to toss it, but doing so would mean I would have to admit that I’m wasting food.
Then I’d have to write about it!
I just need to own up to my food wastage, and toss that hummus into the compost.
But most importantly, I’m going to continue the never ending work of eating our leftovers, because it’s currently not an option to beam it aboard a Klingon spaceship.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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Try keeping six 12 and 13 year old neighborhood boys around the house. I have found that they eat everything! Our fridge was completely empty this morning.