Love Food Hate Waste cookery demonstration in Hereford

Some of you may remember that I took part in a food preparation course last year.  Stephen, the Council officer who manages our Master Composter scheme, had a great idea for live cookery demonstrations at events. He asked for volunteers from the existing Master Composter group, who would be willing to cook "in the field" and hand out samples of food.

Love Food Hate Waste is a campaign dear to my heart, as food waste is a major issue. We throw away 7 million tonnes of food and drink from our homes every year, the majority of which could have been eaten. It's costing us £12.5bn a year and is bad for the environment too. Some of you may remember I am also a Love Food Hate Waste advisor.


Personally speaking I HATE food waste. I think we should make the very best of all the food we grow and if we eat meat we should honour the animal who has died to give us the meat, by using all of it as much as we possibly can. I compost waste to get the maximum out of the food stuff I grow or buy, to return any left overs to improve the soil for the next season. So it stands to reason that I feel the same about cooking food - I want to get the very best out of the ingredients and make the most of any leftovers.

Anyway, several of us volunteered, and we all passed our Food Hygiene course so now there are four of us Master Composter volunteers who have done the required training and are ready to actually demonstrate various LFHW related recipes, rather than just handing out recipe cards and information.

We have been exchanging lists and emails of equipment needed and after a planning meeting with our Council contacts, purchase of a set of equipment and lots more email discussion we were ready to roll with the first cookery demo.

This took place in Hereford Library, as part of a healthy eating week. We had to provide all our own cooking equipment, and get it upstairs to the room we were in - fortunately there was a small staff kitchen area next door for washing up.

We had to set up the cooking demo and the LFHW stand between 12 and 1. Mary, Diane and I set up the tables, cooker etc and then we got on preparing the veg - the plan was to cook a simple Leek and Potato soup and hand out samples while talking through how we made it. Meanwhile Alex, Denise and Ste from the Council set up the information stand, full of good ideas on how to Love Food Hate Waste.

and then from 1 - 3 pm we three cooks demonstrated from scratch how to make soup, serving up cups of soup to the public and discussing variations on soup making - we discussed lots of ideas for using up extras and leftovers!


The first pan of soup went very quickly, so we got cracking making another pan, which was also eaten quickly :)

We handed out 25 cups of soup (compostable cups, of course!) and the LFHW stand spoke to around 35 people in total. The Healthy Eating people also had an information stand (Change for Life, BHF information)  and between us we handed out lots of hints and tips to reduce food waste and make the most of food.

Clearing up and packing up took some time and we also discussed what extra or different equipment we would need for future events, but the general feeling was that it was well worth doing and had been a successful event. .

I think for a first attempt we did really well and we are looking forward to doing more events over the course of 2014.

Approved Food order

I have often read of other blogging friends ordering from Approved Foods and thought I would have a go as well - but it has taken me until recently for there to be anything I really wanted, to be on offer. 

No fault of AF, just one of those things, but finally a day came when I checked and there was loads of stuff there which we not only use, but we were also nearly out of!

 So I placed an order and a few days later was notified of the 1 hour window of delivery. As this was at a time when I was out, I altered it :) and the next day eagerly unpacked the parcel.

Lots of things we like to eat, both lots of staples and a few luxuries!

The box was a bit bashed about and sadly a few tins were very dented and two of the bags of wholefoods were split open, but a call to Approved Foods soon sorted out a refund AND an apology for something with I really do not think was their fault. So full marks for customer service AF.

I saved over £40 on this little lot, all things we eat regularly but at much lower prices than normal. And it saves food being wasted just because it is past a so called "Best Before" date


Not sure I will be ordering regularly as a lot of the food does not appeal to us,  but I will keep watching as who knows when I might spot some more bargains :)

Food handling training - with a difference!

So yesterday I spent all day on a CIEH (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) Food Safety Level 2 course - with a difference!

I spent it outside, cooking in the woods at Bishops Wood Environment Centre

We were an assorted group of ( mostly) Forest School leaders, but although I am a FS Leader, I was actually there with a couple of other Love Food Hate Waste Ambassadors, as we want to do some cooking demonstrations as part of our volunteer role.

We talked through the usual Food Safety stuff, different bacteria, danger zone/safe zone temperatures, how to keep clean, the use of different colour coded chopping boards, general food preparation,  the importance of proper storage and reheating,

and then we put it all into practice by making a delicious vegetable soup for lunch, cooked over the fire

We also toasted teacakes and made hot drinks and then mid afternoon packed up camp to do the CIEH (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health) Food Safety Level 2 exam

I have done a more conventional version of this course before and although it was helpful I did have a lot of questions about cooking outdoors which were not really addressed. This time they were :)

The course was taught by Sal Teasdale of Anubis Training - those of you who read my past posts will know I have done lots of training with Sal and Anubis and as usual the whole day was excellent.

Just hope I have passed!

Waste food feeds 5,000 for lunch at Trafalgar Square - what a great idea

What a terrific idea! As a Love Food Hate Waste champion, I love this!

Wonky carrots, misshapen potatoes and tonnes of food rejected by supermarkets have been used to give 5,000 people a free curry lunch in Trafalgar Square.

The event organised by charities and farmers aimed to show that a lot of food binned in the UK could be eaten.

 
link to article here

Fri 5th June The Big Event and more composting advice given out

Today (Fri) was very successful in Hereford High Town, we had lots of visitors




and children planting seeds,




and I had a good look around The Big Green Bus. It was full of very interesting stuff! I also met up with someone I haven't seen for a long time, the dynamic originator behind the Big Green Bus and its charity The Big Green idea . the lovely Brigit Strawbridge. (yes, Brigit from the TV programme)

Brigit handed over 2 Bokashi bins she had very kindly collected from another friend..so I now have a "full house" of different composting methods (compost bins, wormeries, bokashi, green cone, green joanna....)

The rest of the various stands were also really interesting and I learned some new stuff ( always a good thing...)

On Sat 6th June I shall be in Hereford on the King George V meadow doing my Compostwoman bit to promote composting at home. I am doing this (with other Master Composters) as part of Hereford Earth Watch, a 2 day event celebrating World Environment Day.

Saturday's event is more of a general festival, with a big music event !

I shall be there from 12 noon until the end so if you are in the area come and say "hello"

Love Food, Hate Waste training day, what an eye opener!

Well, I was invited to attend this training , as I am a Master Composter (a community Compost Advisor working to promote home composting) and I thought it sounded interesting and a complementary activity to my "compost your compostibles" campaign....

I had to keep a food waste diary for a week before the training day (which was very interesting and informative, it turns out we don't really waste any food BUT largely beacuse I have "birds" and cats to feed odd scraps to, and we compost EVERY SCRAP which can be composted..so we came out as unusually low food wasters....as did all my fellow Master Composters and Council Waste Officers on this course! ( not a big suprise there, all the MC's are dedicated RRR people as are the wonderful council officers!)

The training was really good we learnt lots of useful stuff , had a really nice lunch and networked like crazy! AND learned a lot as the course detail was vey good and informative.....I found myself speechless ( seriously!) several times during the presentations and the later role play scenarios....


Here are some extracts from the (properly assessed) studies done by WRAP ..I asked some quite hard questions about this and am satisfied the study was pretty well organised!



In the UK in general

Total food waste = 6.7 million tonnes PER YEAR in the UK

Read that again..6.7 MILLION TONNES PER YEAR!!!!

Which breaks down to ...

Avoidable food waste = 4.1 million tonnes 61%
Possibly avoidable food waste = 1.3 million tonnes 20%
Unavoidable food waste = 1.3 million tonnes( peelings etc) 19%
Which OF COURSE should be composted!


Foods thrown away whole and untouched every day

Potatoes 5.1 million a day
Sausages 1.2 million a day
Slices of bread 7 million a day
Yoghurt & yoghurt drinks 1.3 million a day
Apples 4.4 million a day
Half of the salad we eat !

Avoidable food waste = 4.1 million tonnes (£10.2 billion)


Avoidable food waste = 4.1 million tonnes (£10.2 billion)
“cooked or prepared too much” 1.3 mt (£3.4 billion)
“left & unused” 2.6 mt (£6.3 billion)
“unknown” 0.2 mt (£0.5 billion)

“left & unused” -

Storage

“less than ideal” location
 bread in the fridge (11%)
 bananas in the fridge (6%)
 apples outside the fridge (74%)

“Unprotected”
 sliced meats unsealed after opening (13%)
 dried foods unsealed after opening (11%)
 cheese unsealed after opening (7%)

Incorrect fridge temperature
 60% don’t know what it should be (average is 6.6°C vs. target of <5 data-blogger-escaped-br=""> Lack of knowledge about what can be frozen
 Not making sufficient use of the freezer

Date labelling
 Food “gone past its date” is the main reason given for throwing away food
 Almost 50% do not understand the meaning of date labels (FSA, 2008)
 36% treat “best before” as a “use-by”
 53% never eat past the date for fruit & veg
 56% never eat past the date for bread & cakes

Confidence
 “use by” = use by end of that date
 Almost 10% leave a days “buffer”
 21% will not “take a risk” with a product close to its date, even if it appears fine

Cost per household per year ( ie this is what could be saved if you didn't do this kind of thing...)

average households with children £610

Households of adults £380

Households of unrelated sharers £520

Single occupant households £250

WOW that is a LOT of dosh!


A really thought provoking fact..... food waste is the equivalent of 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide

That is the same as produced by one 1 in 5 cars on the road! THINK about it!


Also it is no good blaming "the old" " the young" etc....

As age isn’t really an influence, we’re all wasting food! 1.2kg/person/week…

nor is Household composition, Household with children is the same as a household with just adults (per capita)…

and nor is Household size! Only significant difference is single households at 1.9
kg/person/wk

We’re all wasting food! BUT 84% of us believe we throw none or hardly any food away!


So...doing this training means I now have a better idea why so much food is wasted and I can help people get the very best from the food they have shelled out their hard earned money for...

How to store it so it lasts, how to cook just the right amount, how to store any leftovers and use them up next day and how to perhaps shop so as to minimise waste!

all this AND save cash and eat good food as well!

If you are interested in this, see Love Food Hate Waste for more details!

I shall certainly be adding the LFHW leaflets and banners to my composting related stalls over the summer!

Being a food lover means getting the most from the food I buy. It is not about having gourmet cook intentions, but about being grounded in everyday simple actions that can help me manage and cook my food so that more gets eaten and less gets wasted.
It pays on so many levels – I save money, feel better and more confident, save time and I help the environment too.

The habits of a food lover
1. Check fridge first - try to make a shopping list ( and stick to it!)
2. Keeping food fresh - most fruit is best in the fridge, but bananas are better outside of it.
3. Judging the right amount – get a mug for rice - work out a measure which works for your circumstances! Use a spagetti "hole" to portion what you need in one go!
4. Freezing and frozen foods –what freezes & for how long? If you grow your own or buy in bulk, how to best store it? Open freezing? Dehydrating? Bottling? jamming? pickling?
5. Use-By and best before – what needs eating first? Learn! Be more self reliant! Sniff and look and trust your judgement BUT be aware of Use by dates for meat and dairy etc as they are there for a very good reason ( to stop you getting food poinioning)
6. Free-lunching – taking well stored leftover food outside the home to eat for lunch the next day ( mmm yum! I LOVe pasta salad next day...)
7. Leftovers – new meals from leftovers, store them correctly to be safe!
8. In-store – frozen v fresh/ right size of pack/ offers - are they as a good a deal as they seem?


For more information on food waste
www.wrap.org.uk
Love Food Hate Waste www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

General catch up

Well it has been a bit manic here at Compost Mansions recently, hence the lack of posts since last weekend..(which was actually a post I did a week earlier but hadn't actually hit "post" on it....)

First, at the start of the last week I got ill...very ill....with a nasty flu-ey thing which I am only just recovering from now...I missed 2 days "outside" work ( grrr, but working with children, I couldn't either ethically contemplate dosing myself up and going, nor was I actually well enough to do so anyway...)

I was chilled, sweating, aching, sore throat, headache, sick, had the runs and generally felt like I had been hit all over by very angry, big people with very big sticks......( and NO, I have NOT been in contact with any one recently returned from anywhere overseas, or from areas where Mexican Flu had hit in the UK....I DID wonder about volunteering myself as a possible case BUT I didn't meet the NHS criteria , so I didn't...)

I have been ill for 10 days now and I only JUST feel vaguely human today....and have missed the last few days of the term and most of this half term....

Also, we have been so busy with growing and planting and sowing and mowing and scything etc...I dragged my self out of my sick bed at one point to prick out plants and had a lap tray on my knee whilst on the sofa, so I could pot on some tiny brassica seedlings......I have still been tending to the plants in the polytunnel and the hens, despite being ill....Compostman had so much to do.. so who will do it if *I* don't?

COMMENT

One of the downsides of an "idyllic" rural lifestyle is, unless you have pots of money and can afford to pay staff to do stuff for you, you have to keep going regardless of illness. I didn't do any stuff for 4 days when I was really ill, but once I was "sort of " ok, I had to get on with at least some of it...as Compostman has more than enough of his own work to do, without having to do *my work* as well..Compostgirl helped a lot, but at 8, she really can't just step into my jobs and do them like me....she can water stuff and collect eggs but she doesn't know what to do if anything more tricky presents itself...

People often don't consider this aspect of living "the rural dream of downshifting"...they think of a few hens, some pigs, a veg garden, a greenhouse and being more self sufficient in fruit , veg and eggs etc ...BUT its a 24/7 dedication, 365 days a year...regardless of illness, incapacity or inclination...YOU have to keep going....that is the reality if you keep any livestock.....or grow a lot of stuff to eat...if you want to eat it, you have to look after it!

END COMMENT

The hens have all mysteriously gone off lay...I am only getting 2 or 3 eggs from 6 laying hens..I think it is because the 2 cockerels are fighting and generally being a pain..and disturbing the hens...so MEASURES WILL BE TAKEN......(!)( use your imaginations..they have had a reprieve while I have been ill.....)

Various "work stuff" has also been going on for me, I finally got my Forest School Practitioner Certificate through in the post yesterday (hurrah!) AND I am about to start a regular programme of Eco Club sessions somewhere, for a fee...which is great....! (I could do with the money)

I have also been arranging a weekend of Master Composter activity (as in ALL the arranging, of the stand, the booking, the rota, the supplies, the session plans, the risk assessment etc...) at Hereford Earth Watch, which revolves around World Environment Day on the 5th June, and also carries over on the 6th June.

I am also organising (as in ALL the organising, the booking, the rota, the supplies, the session plans, the risk assessment etc...) the Master Composters presence at Hellens Manor, The Garden Festival in the 13th and 14th June.

AND I am doing some "Love Food Hate Waste" training this week.....

(To be honest, I feel tired just contemplating the next 2 weeks, and I haven't even started it yet.....)

BUT its all good stuff and will help to spread the word about living a more sustainable, frugal minded life...

Oh, did I mention the Transition Town Ledbury stuff?...no? ....more in a future post!

Do something on World Environment Day? Please? If only to make me feel my shattered-ness is having an effect?

I shall post some links tommorrow...........promise....but for now it is off to bed for me.....

Thank you...

:-)