the Waste-Not Blog

For us, the Waste-Not Plan is a blueprint to arrive at our ultimate goal of total independence in terms of food (for us and our animals), energy (at least in terms of heat and cooking, and using the grid only for luxuries that can easily be dispensed with) and money (we want to be able to have both me and Ben at home or at least working very minimally, so what land we have needs to at least pay for its own taxes and hopefully a bit extra). For others it might just be a matter of becoming progressively more self reliant: having enough food to know that a couple weeks without buying groceries won't reduce you to eating expired spaghetti-Os from the back of the cupboard, being able to pay down debt and add to a nest egg, reducing your carbon footprint and plugging your particular holes in the waste stream. That's why I call these "levels" instead of "steps," because even if you never get past "level one" or "level two," you're here. You...

15 grams of protein. 6-12 grams of insoluble fiber. 4-5 g of soluble fiber. Plus vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium. These all come from a one cup serving of cooked dry beans. The amounts of different nutrients vary based on the type of beans under discussion: black beans and kidney beans are very rich in iron, while lentils are a very good source of molybdenum and folate. But we all knew this, right? Beans are healthy, beans are cheap, we should all eat more beans. Clearly nobody needs to hear any of this information again. Remind me why I thought this post was a good idea? Oh. This is why. On average, a given American eats less than six pounds of beans in a year . That's about forty cups of beans annually, significantly less than a cup per week. We're all concerned about the burgeoning problems with cardiovascular disease, obesity, living wage, you name it--and we eat maybe a cup of beans in a week? Nonsense, I say! Balderdash, I proclaim! We can all do bet...

Ever noticed that the bone-in cuts cost less in the grocery store? It makes sense. Removing bones increases the production cost of parts like chicken thighs and of course means extra inedible weight since no one eats the bones. If you have no plans for making use of bones then the boneless cuts might actually be a more economical choice, since they will involve much less waste. However, rather than choosing to switch to all boneless cuts in the future, I urge you to instead consider how you can get the maximum value out of those bone-in cuts of meat. Once we gnaw the meat off the bones, what's left is cartilage, sinew, and bone: all the important components for nourishing, tasty bone broth. Now, you may think of broth as something you do in large quantities: a few beef soup bones, or a whole turkey carcass in a giant pot, slowly simmering all night and all day. Those are very good ways to make broth and I highly recommend them. But even in small quantities--the bones from fou...