A to Z of Food Storage

 

Here's a detailed, easy to use guide for food storage. Enjoy!

Thanks to the Love Food; Hate Waste website.

How to Properly Wash Fruits and Vegetables

 

 

I came a cross this concise and useful article featuring tips for washing vegetables. It was originally published on the Country Living site and was written by Christopher Michel. Here are highlights from his post:

1. Wash your hands. Use soap and scrub those hands for 20 seconds both before and after handling fresh produce.
2. Wash all produce. Even if you’re going to peel them, you want to rinse your veggies. That keeps dirt and bacteria from transferring onto your knife or cutting board. (This includes vegetables with rinds and skins, like avocados and melons.)
3. Plain water will suffice. You don’t need to use soap, vinegar, produce wash or anything else. In fact, in a study by the University of Maine, water performed just as well as produce wash at removing bacteria and fungi, without leaving a residue.
4. But you need to rub. To make sure the veggies are clean, gently rub them with your fingers. For firm fruits and veggies such as potatoes, melons, cucumbers, etc., you can use a clean vegetable brush (not the one you use for your dishes).
5. Dry the produce. Use a clean cloth or paper towel, and get all the moisture off before storing or cooking. This will further reduce any bacteria.
6. Remove leaves. For items like cabbage, you can remove the outermost leaves.
7. Cut away visible damage. This may seem like common sense, but the FDA also recommends cutting away any visible damage or bruising before preparing or eating your fruit as well.

To read the full article (which also covers the best way to actually wash berries, CLICK HERE

 

Recycling the Hard Stuff

Most of us know how to recycle the easy stuff: cans and bottles and cardboard. But when it comes to the trickier items: batteries, compact fluorescent bulbs etc, it can be difficult to know what's the right thing to do. In the spirit of sharing our planet and keeping it healthy for all of life, and future life, follow this link to an informative slide-show. Link

The Story of Electronics

Thinking about tossing out your new year-old phone for the newer, sexier smart phone? Electronics manufacturers make it hard for us to stick with products by churning out new, incompatible versions every year or two. But this type of disposable designing is creating 25 million tons of e-waste, poisoned workers, and an increasingly toxic environment. Learn more about how our electronic products are made, what happens once we are done with them, and how we can support smarter, greener practices.
"The Story of Electronics"

All over the country, there are many places springing up where you can recycle your electronic equipment. Often these places offer volunteers experience at dismantling older equipment, building new computers from the component pieces and the responsible discarding of the parts that can no longer be reused. Here is one such program in Portland, OR:  Free Geek
And another one in Eugene and Springfield, OR:  Next Step Recycling

Do a search on the web to find a similar program near you.

The Story of Stuff

Well, the New Year is here. Time for making resolutions
and settling a new course in your life for higher ground.
We came across this marvelous video
by Annie Leonard called The Story of Stuff.
It's entertaining, eye-opening and will give you
the inspiration and rationale to make 2011 a year to
voluntarily reduce your consumption of
stuff.