Love Food Hate Waste Pledge

Last week I signed up to the Love Food Hate Waste challenge and pledged to do the following for one week:-
Plan weekly meals
Make a shopping list for the week and stick to it.
Use any leftovers to create new meals.
Keep a food waste diary for one week to see how much and what types of food we throw away.

So how did I get on and what confessions have I got to make!

Sunday - family came round for lunch, so always slightly more difficult to judge how much to cook etc, but it was roast beef, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts and gravy.
Dessert was hilarious as a cider apple syllabub with a cracknel that hadn't quite hardened enough so it, well and truly stuck your teeth together. Delicious flavour, but each mouthful certainly exercised your jaw - we fell about laughing. If you ever want to pull teeth, this would do the job.

Anyway the little waste on the plates was saved for Fudge, our dog - no sticky toffee though and amazingly there was no wasted dessert.

Monday, always a tricky day in the Rigby household, as each member attends a club in the evening - each club takes place at a different time and means eating quite late. Leftover cold beef and bubble and squeak made from the leftover brussel sprouts.

Tuesday, determined to be good and stick to this as much as I can, slaved away to make Aunty Delia's cottage pie to use up leftover beef with a leek and potato topping. Generous enough to give Fudge two portions.

Wednesday, bananas beginning to build up from the fruit bag, so ask number one daughter to please make some of her delicious banana cake. I knew dinner was going to be difficult tonight as a half term visit to Huddersfield was taking place for Tim and number one daughter.
Decide to oven roast the peppers that have been breeding in the fridge, planned to add to the pasta dish I was making for tea. Time drags on and our appetites our waning so leave the peppers for Thursdays supper.

Thursday, ciabattas with roasted peppers and mozzarella.

Friday comes, uh oh lurking in the back of the fridge is some spinach limp and dark, it must be binned even Fudge looks away in disgust, no wonder he wandered off!

Friday night and my earlier efforts of attempting the domestic goddess have long gone - I want something easy to put in the oven and bring out cooked and ready to eat. I convince myself, that after my queuing at the local supermarket(how boring) and arriving home at gone seven I deserve it.
So it was easy, only trouble is a takeaway is on the cards for Saturday night as a full day, is leaving Tim and I no time to cook. Feeling guilty about the packaging on the takeaway though!

Whew - last day Sunday, chicken from the freezer.

So, what have we thrown away - some bananas, spinach which we do like, some milk as I over estimated our capacity for it and was tempted by the 2 for £3 offer. That'll teach me, could have saved over a £1. Also threw out some shrivelled parsnips, some cream and my worst confession was some soup that I had bought and not even noticed that I could freeze it had to be binned.

The Fresh pod definitely helps to keep the fruit and vegetables fresher for longer, I do enthuse about this product because I know its paid for itself time and time again.



I know that we could try harder and with a bit more effort waste less, I think we would have thown away more if Fudge hadn't helped out. Thanks Fudge.


So I do resolve to keep on trying to reduce our waste, landfill and save money.

Brussels Gets Into Hot Water

A European eco design directive could come into force next year. The directive would be made with the intention to curb the growth of household electricity consumption.

Measures would include banning washing machines that don't have a cold wash setting. There are plans for a study to take place on improving the energy efficiency of the kettle. It is thought that researchers will look at kettles that heat a set number of cups.

This has concerned manufacturers and has led to Paolo Falcioni, of the European Committee of Domestic Appliances to state "kettles are already as efficient as possible. The only improvement would be not to have them at all. Paolo is a lobbyist for the industry!
Brussels predicts the directive could save the equivalent of Italy's entire annual electricity consumption!

Here in the UK, the ECO Kettle with its unique patented dual-chamber design can be filled with up to 1.5 litres of water and as little as (200ml) one cup can be boiled. In independant consumer tests the ECO Kettle used on average 31% less electricity than any other kettle. Perhaps the study will also look at Boiling water taps such as the Quooker!

Here in the UK users of the Eco Kettle can feel a little smug that they are already ahead of the eco design directive!

Eco Makeover

It was a real surprise to see Eco Kitchens Online flash up on the tv screen on Friday 8th May on ITV's Sixty Minute Makeover programme.

It was last year that we were asked if we were able to supply some special items for the programme they were going to make. We supplied a swich that changed the ordinary tap into one that provides filtered water. We provided Bins to make recycling easy and some energy saving lighting.

Sascha a champion swimmer won two gold medals for Britain in the Paralympic games in Beijing, wanted to thank his mum for supporting him throughout his sporting career. Terri Dwyer, designer Kathryn Rayward and the sixty minute makeover team went to Crawley to carry out an Eco makeover on Beatrice's house.

Beatrice, was delighted with the makeover the team had done a great job of transforming the house.

Compost Awareness Week

The 3rd of May saw the start of compost awareness week in the UK. Each year in England some 11.4 million tonnes of kitchen waste such as vegetable peelings, tea bags and food scraps are sent to landfill. These organic materials within a landfill are the main source of methane (the greenhouse gas responsible for global warming and 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide). It is no wonder then that in 1998 , the Department of Environment and Labour in Nova Scotia banned compostable organic waste from landfills. A progressive step that placed Nova Scotia as a world leader in composting.

It's easy to start the process of making compost from items such as fruit and vegetable peelings and tea bags these can be put in a kitchen caddy.

If you use a ventilated caddy which helps to reduce odours, you will need to use a liner, look for liners that carry the seedling logo which means that your liner can also go on the compost heap and will break down naturally. These liners are accepted by councils as part of their food waste collections.

Once your caddy is full transfer the contents to the compost heap or container in the garden. In the garden you can add items such as grass clippings, leaves and scrunched up paper. All of this can significantly reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. There is also the satisfaction of producing compost for your garden from your waste, allowing nature to take its course by returning any organic material to where it came from - the soil.
For excellent advice and information on how to build your compost in the garden visit home composting.

Traditional Sinks Saved

Isn't it interesting how one thing leads to another, my previous post was about what we put down the kitchen sink.

This post is about the sink manufacturer, Shaws of Darwen who has been bought out by its management team, saving over 70 jobs. Shaws have been manufacturing handcrafted sinks and architectural terracotta since 1897. Shaws were bought by Qualceram in 2000.

We first came across Shaws of Darwen a couple of years ago at an industry trade show. We were impressed by the quality of their products and attention to detail. Each sink carries its own distinctive badge and is proudly signed with the impression of its own maker.

Shaws is one of Darwen's oldest firms and even employs some third-generation workers, so not only have the jobs been saved but it is keeping a tradition alive.

Eco Kitchens Online wish them every success.

Time to Clean Up Our Act

Sunday was a glorious start to British Summertime here, and a fantastic day for putting my washing outside to dry.

The article in this weeks Observer made me think that there is no excuse not to change our habits.

There was an article on how household cleaning products are creating a bacterial time bomb in our drains and rivers. The warning has been made by Birmingham and Warwick university scientists, who say disinfectants and other products washed into sewers and rivers are triggering the growth of drug-resistant microbes.

In the article Dr William Gaze of Warwick University says that "every year, the nation produces 1.5m tonnes of sewage sludge most of which is spread on farmland". He explained that the sludge contains antibiotic-resistant bacteria whose growth is triggered by chemicals in detergents.

In their study, the scientists looked at quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC’s), which are used in many household cleaning goods. Every day huge volumes of these chemicals are flushed from homes and factories into sewers and rivers. In high concentrations, QAC’s kill bacteria. However, in sewage, these chemicals become diluted and bacteria have evolved resistance to them.

In the future this could pose all sorts of problems. For instance it may enter the bodies of agricultural workers or people who use the land recreationally or get into the food chain.

Nothing beats the smell of freshly laundered washing, but natural cleaning products using essential oils instead of chemicals are kinder to the environment and will still give you that freshly laundered smell.

There are also Ecoballs (laundry kit) and anti-bacterial cleaning cloths containing silver that won’t flush chemicals into the water.

If we don’t clean up our act the environment is going to pay a high price for our cleaning habits.

You can find out more about drug resistance
Planetearth.nearc.ac.uk