Wondering how to live greener? You've come to the right place. Each week we challenge ourselves to try a new task ... or "amp up" something we're already doing. We raise our awareness, learn from each other and develop Eco-friendly skills which will improve our lives and protect our planet. Doing so together gives us power ... the power to Change The World!
If this is your first visit, please click HERE for information and a complete list of all the challenges we've taken on so far.
This post contains great information and I encourage you to read through it at your leisure ... however, if you are short on time, you might find the following quick links helpful:
Last week we tackled food waste, a "warm up" to Mrs. Green's Zero Waste Week event in September. In my house, using up food is standard practice. However, I did notice an area which can be "fine tuned" ... using bread before it molds. We make our own bread and typically make small amounts ... enough to cover a meal or two. With the high humidity we've had recently, the last few slices seem to go bad before we can use them up. My solution is to run those last pieces through the food processor, toast them & then freeze them for use as bread crumbs later on. The tricky part is timing ... doing it before the bread goes bad. Let's see how everyone else did with this task.
The Honor Society are those people who help us spread the "green" word by writing an article about our challenges and/or leaving pertinent comments.
The Food and Gardening Daily gave CTWW a headline spot last week HERE and Top Billing in this EDITION. These papers are filled with some great articles like Poverty Problems Brits turn to Food Banks amid Austerity & Economic Downturn and Hunger Can Be A Food Justice & Food Shortage Issue ~ GANADERÍA MÉXICO.
Mrs. Green challenges everyone to do a food waste audit where, typically, people who say they don't waste find out that yes, indeed, they do. Then, the "excuses" start. Read An invitation from Mrs Green and Small Footprints! to learn about other common reasons we waste food (“Can’t be arsed”?).
Lois accepted the challenge and says, "Again you provided me with a simple challenge this week. Food waste was not allowed in my home growing up. My grandparents, having grown up during the Great Depression, were very adamant that nothing went to waste. The main focus was always on preparation. No dishes were done, or table cleared until the leftovers were separated and packaged for either the fridge or freezer with plans to use them. Then the cleaning up could begin." She also wrote Change the World Wednesday, waste where she talks about having to readjust cooking practices when one's children leave home. As always, she offers plenty of tips and ideas.
EcoGrrl dropped in and shared this, "I don't remember the last time I tossed food in the trash. Any non-meat waste created goes into the compost, and on the occasion I do have meat that involves bones, they go into the curbside compost. And fortunately, we have a lot of restaurants here who participate in the city's composting program as well - you'd love it!" By the way, EcoGrrl recently wrote a very sensitive post entitled Tuesday Go Ponder: The Meaning of Dad, of Father, of Man. It's well worth reading!
In 10 minutes, Argentum Vulgaris writes about burnt toast, blogging while cooking (sounds dangerous) and bread’n'butter pudding. Yep, it all has to do with Change the World Wednesday – 10th Jul.
The Shopping Charity gave some of your articles a mention ... was yours one of them?
Our Twitter friends joined the conversation and shared the following:
From @soulfullab
- Got me thinking. If everyone cared about the health of the world, our individual health would follow suit.
From @givetreegifts
- How To: Use Up Overripe Fruit ow.ly/mQ9Mg
- Recipes For Overripe Berries, Peaches, Bananas, and Plums ow.ly/mQ9Qu
- Over ripe berries are still fab for salad dressings, sauces, smoothies
- Help end food waste via David Suzuki Foundation ow.ly/mQaay
- Resource Conservation - Food Waste Reduction and Prevention | US EPA ow.ly/mQagM
- Recipes that use up those Leftovers ow.ly/mQapW
- 13 Easy Recipes to use up Leftovers ow.ly/mQayE
- Leftover Recipes - What to do with your leftover food ow.ly/mQaEZ
From @dusdifissette
- I love to challenge myself to do as many past challenges as I can every week.
- Change The World Wednesday #CTWW Zero Food Waste. Wow this is going to be fun! I'm going to check what they do in #space w/food waste!
From @jnaquins
- #compost
From @rulesofgreen
- This week's #CTWW is about one of my favorite subjects! @ScrapLunch project's FB facebook.com/ScrapLunch is still active...
- ...and @ScrapLunch project's blog has lots of tips on how to reduce food waste scraplunchproject.blogspot.se #CTWW
From @lavishandlime
- Wash fruit & veg in a bowl of water instead of under running water from the tap.
From @bike2power
- Glad to be a part of it, there's so much good that can be done by a community of people working together!
From @changes4charlie
- Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by CHANGE. pic.twitter.com/bvnKXbMgkv
The #CTWW Gang are those folks who tweet our challenges using the hashtag #CTWW. If you're a Twitter member, I recommend following them ... they share great things. Let's meet them:
My Final Thoughts:
Jacques Pepin, a famous chef, once shared that his mother never wasted food. He said that she used ugly, wilted vegetables to make incredible dishes. My grandmother, a wonderful home cook, also avoided waste. Items which were no longer acceptable for the table were cooked up and served to her dog. For these two women, along with countless others, wasting was simply not an option. In today's world, it has become easy to toss out that imperfect piece of fruit or that less-than-beautiful vegetable. We don't give it a second thought. How sad! The good news is that avoiding food waste is within our power. With planning and effort, we can eliminate it forever. And that's a good thing ... for us and for the planet!
Thanks, everyone! If you wrote an article, I Stumbled, Tweeted, Facebooked and posted it on Google +. You can help spread the "green" word by using the share features located below this post.
This Week's Challenge:
A couple of challenges ago, we asked that everyone do one more thing to save energy. This week, we going to use that same concept to green up our routines. Here you go ...
This week review your activities and come up with at least one more way to live green. Similar to our energy challenge, this will be easy for "newbies" who have plenty of options to choose from and tough for seasoned "greenies" who will have to dig deep. Let's see how green we can be!!
Are you up for this challenge? I know that you are!
Please join me in our mantra ...
WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!