"Stein, tell me true,"Nancy Leson asked. "Do you think you waste a lot of food?" I'd say I waste less food than the average American. And 73 percent of us say the same. You do the math.
Nance asked that because she's just finished a new book, Scraps Peels and Stems: Recipes and Tips for Rethinking Food Waste at Home by Seattle author Jill Lightner. The book is loaded with tips on gardening, composting, shopping and storing. There's advice on meal planning, recipes, what to do with leftovers, both from restaurants and home cooked. All to help us minimize the amount of food we waste – an average of 18 pounds per month.
And so much of what we waste is still useful. Take cauliflower stems. Edible and crunchy delicious in slaws, stocks and soups. You can even roast the leaves. They're great with a splash of basamic.
Jill Lightner reads from and discusses her Scraps Peels and Stems at various locations around the sound through October.
"When you take more than you can eat you cheat your buddies in the fleet." – WWII food conservation poster
