The Zero Garbage Challenge

You asked for it, and here it is… the easiest bread recipe (and delicious too!)

Basic Bread Recipe (one loaf):

1. Mix 3 cups bread flour, 1/4 teaspoon yeast and 1 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add 1 5/8 cup water, stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic.  Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when surface is dotted with bubbles. Turn dough onto floured work surface and fold once or twice.  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, gently and quickly shape into a ball.  Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or corn meal.  Put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour.  Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours.
3. At least 30 minutes before dough is ready, heat oven to 450.  Put 6 - 8 quart covered pot (cast iron, enamel, or ceramic) in oven as it heats.  When dough is ready, it will be more than double in size and will not spring back when poked with a finger.  Slide hand under towel and turn dough over into the hot pot, seam side up.  Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake for 15-30 minutes, until loaf is browned.  Cool on a rack.

Options:

- If you don’t have a covered pot, use a bread pan and lower oven temp to 400
- To make a whole wheat loaf, use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 bread flour
- To make an olive loaf, add 1/2 cup chopped olives when adding water
- To make a health nut loaf, add to flour mix:

• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/4 cup millet
• 1/4 cup flaxseeds
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Here’s how easy it is to make compost from your food scraps:

1) assemble food scraps

2) walk into your yard

3) put food scraps in a pile

4) wait

We have a very lazy compost pile.  I nailed together four old sections of picket fence, and we just make a big pile of our food scraps.  No turning, no special ingredients, no worrying about water or heat.  Compost just happens, given enough time.  

If you don’t have a yard, you can buy or make a container.  You can even compost indoors.

For more information, read this article called Compost Made Easy.  And go to this website full of tips, ideas and products.

Finally, if the thought of rich, earthy compost fills your heart with joy, then run outside and spread some on your garden while reciting this Ode to Compost.

Do you love butter? Here are four tips for reusing butter wrappers, instead of tossing them.

Most of the articles that I’ve read about Dumpster Diving begin with “It’s not for everyone, but…”  And then comes the list of magnificent benefits, mostly centered around the moral and financial satisfaction of eating good food for free while also saving it from a landfill. I’ve never tried the art of dumpster diving, although I frequently stop and pick up items left on the side of the road. And I’m very impressed by an anonymous relative’s recent dumpster prize of 11 (!) bottles of extra virgin olive oil.  My anonymous relative saved at least $200, just by going to the trouble of putting on a black outfit, walking behind a store in the dark, and peeking into a dumpster with a flashlight (did I mention that entering dumpsters is illegal?) Nonetheless, if you want to learn more about turning garbage into grub, Click Here or Click Here.  There is even a How-To book.

photo from jonathan020 on flickr.com

I recently learned from a friend (who lives in Boston) that the post-market bulldozing that we saw was from an outdoor market - not a farmer’s market.  The difference is that the produce is not necessarily coming directly from farmers; it may be bulk, or surplus from food vendors. The prices are thus cheaper than most grocery stores (more info here).  So maybe that would explain the buying frenzy that resulted in so much garbage.

Oops, maybe I let an outdoor market give farmers markets a bad name … but then I looked online and came across some pictures of “real” farmers market in Boston.  Smaller scale, but similar photos: a big pile of garbage. I wonder what happens to this pile. I can only guess that it does not get sorted and recycled and composted.

I am definitely not trying to point the finger at Boston, and I’m not trying to criticize markets. If we looked in the dumpster of any grocery store, we’d see much more garbage than this. Many markets actively recycle and/or compost. This picture is just something to keep in mind as we decide which markets to support.