Thursday August 28th, 2008
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5 Ways I'm Greening Up My Kitchen
Posted by Jessica Harlan on November 28, 2007 - 8:45am.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard that my home town, Atlanta, is in a pretty serious drought. Every time I turn on the news, I'm hearing in a doomsday tone how many (or rather, how few) days of water Metro Atlanta has left.Naturally, this whole issue has made me think differently about nearly every aspect of how I do things in the kitchen, from washing dishes to filling a tea kettle to even washing my daughter's sticky face after lunch. In fact, it may be a bit early to start thinking about New Year's Resolutions, but the water shortage has also caused me to rethink my practices in the kitchen and how I can do them with a little less impact to the environment.
I'll share with you a few of the practices I've started implementing in my kitchen... feel free to share yours. Even if you don't live in an area with such dire drought conditions, we can all stand to be a little more frugal and sensible with water, waste and the types of products we use.
- Not pre-rinsing. I came from a household where we rinsed our dishes until they were practically clean already before loading them into the dishwasher. But today's dishwashers and dish detergents can often tackle even the most food-caked dish. Not rinsing means less work for me, and less water waste.
- Using microfiber cloths. Not long ago, I bought a jumbo pack of paper towels at Costco. The pack barely fit under my bathroom sink, and I thought it would be a long, long time before buying more paper towels. Imagine my surprise when, only a month or two later, I went to retrieve a new roll of towels and found that there was only one left! Switching to microfiber cloths for wiping my kitchen counter and appliances, the baby's high chair tray, and the dining room table has really cut back on my paper towel usage. The best part is, the cloths are reusable-I rinse them out in the kitchen sink, and throw them into the washing machine when I'm doing laundry.
- Being smarter about the faucet. Who knows how much water we've lost with our leaky faucet? And who knew how easy it would be to fix. My husband and I are house-owning neophytes, but it was easy enough to find instructions for fixing our kitchen sink ourselves. I've also gotten into the habit of watering my plants with water I collect while I'm waiting for the running water to heat up. And while I used to hand-wash dishes under a constantly-running tap, now I fill both sinks with sudsy and clean water and wash them that way.
- Making less waste. I am usually pretty proud of myself with how much I recycle—there is a good feeling about filling up my recycling bin with cans and plastic containers and cardboard boxes. But it's an even better feeling to try not to dispose of these items at all. That means buying more stuff in bulk, buying larger containers of things like yogurt, and storing and transporting food in reusable plastic containers. And it goes without saying, I've been toting groceries home in my own collection of sturdy cloth bags.
- Wising up with leftovers. How many times have you bought a can of tomato paste, then use only a tablespoon? Or let a carton of chicken or vegetable stock go bad in the fridge because you didn't need the rest? I've started freezing these types of items so that I don't waste what I don't need from a certain recipe, and so they're always on hand. Stock can be frozen in ice cube trays, then popped out and stored in a zip-top bag. One cube is about an ounce (but measure your own trays if you want to make sure). For things like tomato paste or chipotle peppers in adobo, I put dollops of them onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, freeze them, then peel them off the parchment and put them in a bag. Be sure to label the bags with the contents and the date.
Feel free to chime in with your own ideas for how you've "greened" your own kitchen or cooking habits... I'd love to change even more bad habits!
Topics:
- Green Home
- drought
- eco-friendly home cleaners
- recycle
- reusable shopping bags
- reuse
- water conservation
- water management
I, living in the southeast as well, (NC), am working on green ways to conserve in the kitchen. Instead of the prerinse I have a med size bowl in the sink that I fill with water with a splash of dish detergent that I have all my utensils soak in as well as my smaller dishes. Much better than running all that extra running water to rinse. We live right by Lake Norman that is a daily reminder of the crisis of the drought; we are currently about 12 feet below normal, which has closed down the area boat slips. I see it just before I shower, keeping it short and sweet :) . I have friends who are trying to figure out how to recycle toothbrush water, while I have neighbors who still water their lawns regularly. Kind of surreal sometimes. Oh well, I only have control over myself, no one else!!
Thanks, Jessica, for always keeping it real, and for the great ideas.
Take care- nyx....
The USDA has some great information here about freezing foods. If your freezer is cold enough, theoretically, it should last a very, very long time. I personally try to eat things in the freezer within 6 months, however, because older stuff in my freezer seems to get freezer burn and absorbs a "stale" taste.