Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.
What’s the 50%?
That’s the percentage by which America’s food waste has grown since 1974.
Good heavens. That span of years is only a little more than my lifetime.
On the one hand, that’s discouraging, but then on the other hand, if we’ve only been this terrible about food waste for 35+ years, the damage can’t be permanent. We can un-learn what we’ve learned, and undo the habits we’ve fallen into.
I found that little factoid in an article called 18 Little Known Facts That Will Motivate You to Cut Back on Food Waste. Go read it if your motivation tank has been a little low.
Speaking of motivation…I had an epic food waste fail this week, but not for lack of motivation. I was making a smoothie and decided to throw in two wrinkly strawberry halves. I also added a slightly overripe avocado (even my avocado hating kids don’t mind that), and I was all pleased with myself.
That is, until I tasted it.
Somehow, those two wrinkly strawberries infused the whole entire blender-ful of smoothie with a nasty, rotten strawberry flavor.
It was so bad, we had to dump the whole batch out.
I really, really should have just composted those two strawberry halves because instead of that, I ended up wasting yogurt, bananas, an avocado, and some frozen berries. Hindsight is indeed 20/20.
Note to self: err on the side of caution. Or at least taste something before you throw it in the blender.
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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.
Those of you who participate in Food Waste Friday can now grab a fancy-schmancy button to perk up your posts. If you copy and paste the following code into your Food Waste Friday post, this little graphic will appear.
If you blog on WordPress, just make sure you’re in html mode when you copy and paste the code, or it won’t work properly.
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Today’s 365 post: I just love little containers.
Joshua’s 365 post: Big Sky
~Dorthey
Monday 20th of August 2012
eBay has Cloth Napkins Cheap I use the Polyester ones then wash & Dry Great !!!! I think I paid $15- for 12 & got free shipping. I hv cotton 1's but they Wrinkle up then need ironing :( I also just use CUTE lil'Dish rags from $ Tree 2/$1- They shrink, BUT a Great Everyday size ! Hopes this Helps Y'all
mabelandmaisy
Sunday 19th of August 2012
Hello, I saw your cute button on another blog and followed the trail.. Super idea, we've got much better over the years but there's always room for improvement. Lovely blog, I'm going to have a good read. Have a lovely day x
Elizabeth
Saturday 18th of August 2012
This is my first time posting on food waste Friday! Haha, but this week is not my first time wasting food. Anyway this week I wasted a beautiful huge tomato. I went to cut into it for a salad and it had a caterpillar inside. Into the compost it went. Also wasted about a half cup of caramelized onions that I had planned to use on pizza. It was so hot all week I couldn't bring myself to turn on the oven.
Marianne
Sunday 19th of August 2012
bad week for me, battling a tummy issue..that meant too much got tossed. I found a whole pint of homemade soup I missed completely, 1/2 jar pizza sauce, 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce. I am thinking I should just do homemade using small cans of tomato sauce. Does anyone know if I can freeze those after I open them? Not necessarily in the jar but if I use 1/2 jar of pizza sauce can I throw the rest in a baggie and freeze it? I will assume so because I freeze leftover spaghetti all the time. It is difficult switching from feeding 4, then 3 to 2. That is where my waste is coming from.
Skirnir Hamilton
Saturday 18th of August 2012
I feel a little bad about my waste this week. There was some bananas you see that were overripe and I was going to get around to making some banana bread. Honest. But well, when I saw that one of the bananas was opened and actively dripping on my counter, I tossed the 5 banana bunch. Other waste was mainly a little bit of blueberries, spinach and strawberries as I picked through to eat what was good. Seems strawberries are getting more iffy at the store, so not sure how much I will be buying now. I so want to make some strawberry freezer jam, as I have seen how easy it supposedly is online and so want to try it. But am nervous about buying strawberries with how quickly these were soft and moldy this week. I bought 2 pounds of strawberries, and I go through about a pound of strawberries in 2 or 3 days. So it isn't like they sit around long.
Helen
Saturday 18th of August 2012
Happy to report no waste this week! :)