Happy Earth Day! I love that we have a day dedicated to honoring this wonderful planet—after all, where would our delicious berries come from if Mother Earth weren’t so generous in providing for us? With that in mind, I thought it would be PERFECT to share a few tips on ways you can continue caring for the environment by eliminating food waste at home.
1. Use Your Freezer
With fresh produce, it can be difficult to eat everything before it expires. Instead of letting your produce go bad and tossing it in the garbage, preserve your fruits and veggies by freezing them for later use. This article on allrecipes.com provides quick tips and specific how-to's for freezing (and extending the life of) fresh produce.
2. Don’t ditch the weirdo’s
Often, people will toss out fresh fruits and veggies simply because they look "weird" (funny shape, size, or color). Often, there’s nothing wrong with the produce, it just doesn’t look how we think it "should" look. All of the fresh products you buy have unique growing conditions that may affect these characteristics, but typically the delicious flavor is unaffected. Next time you’re at the grocery store, look for and purchase these odd little orphans which will, in turn, reduce food waste!
3. Buy what you’ll eat – and nothing more
It can be helpful to create a very specific list of foods you’re going to purchase BEFORE going to the grocery store. It may seem obvious to make a list before you go grocery shopping, but the difference here is to challenge yourself to only write down food items you know you’re going to eat—without a doubt.
I hope these tips leave you feeling empowered to make a DIFFERENCE today and beyond. What are some ways you care for the environment? Let me know in the comments!