These produce bags with simple tie closures are easy to sew, put a dent in your scrap fabric pile and keep plastic out of landfill. The post How to Sew Produce Bags with Simple Tie Closures appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef ..read more

All you need to start and nurture a lively sourdough starter culture are flour, water, time and a bit of know-how. In this Zoom class, I’ll show you how to start a starter culture—and how to keep it alive. Bring your questions and I’ll answer them after the demo. Class takes place on Saturday, June […] The post Start a Sourdough Starter and Keep It Alive! Free Workshop appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef ..read more

Even a small planting of natives can provide habitat for wildlife in crisis. Where concrete pavers once sat in our yard, flowers now bloom. The post Out With the Concrete Pavers, In With the Plants appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef ..read more

Braising vegetables past their prime prevents not only vegetables from going to waste but also cooking liquids and whatever fat you have. The post How to Revive Sad Vegetables Through Braising appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef ..read more

When you pack a lunch, you eat more food from home and waste less of it. Sew this reusable lunch bag from fabric scraps and rescue those too. The post Easy Reusable Cloth Lunch Bag with a Flap Closure appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef ..read more

Would you like to reduce plastic pollution in your community? Are you crafty? Consider organizing a sewing bee to sew cloth produce bags. The post How to Organize a Sewing Bee to Reduce Plastic Produce Bags appeared first on Zero-Waste Chef ..read more

Jump to Recipe Lemonade takes less time to make than schlepping to the store to buy it and tastes better than anything you’ll find there on the shelves. Simply dissolve sugar in a small amount of hot water, pour in a larger amount of cold water to both dilute and cool the sugar syrup and finally, stir in lemon juice. Because I’m fortunate enough to have a lemon tree growing in my yard, my lemonade costs little to make. (My sister says this tree keeps me rooted in California and she has lost all hope that I’ll ever move back to Canada but she never imagined Project 2025.) As well, branches of o ..read more

My daughter Mary Katherine works as a recycling coordinator in Northern California. She spends the majority of her time helping businesses comply with SB 1383, California’s food scraps recovery law, which requires residents, businesses and organizations to separate organics from trash. Several months ago, I asked people on social media if they had any questions for MK. They had many! She answered most of them on Instagram Live, which I’ve lightly edited below for brevity. How recycling works Q: Why is this all so complicated? MK: It shouldn’t be this complicated but we have so many d ..read more

An online search for items to simplify your life will turn up pages and pages of consumer products. But you don’t need to buy a bunch of expensive new stuff to simplify. And you may already own several of the humble items on this list. If you don’t, find them in your Buy Nothing group and they won’t cost anything. Jars would be my number one life-simplifying item but I’ve already written about them many times here and here and here, for starters. 1. Hooks I recently watched the Patagonia film “Shitthropocene: Welcome to the Age of Cheap Crap” and I can’t stop thinking about hooks and how many ..read more

Would you like to socialize with crafty, like-minded friends, make something useful together, help reduce plastic pollution and build community, all while having fun? Then consider organizing a sewing bee for making reusable produce bags. Learn how to get started in this free Zoom meetup on Friday, July 19th, 2024 at 10am PT/1pm ET. Plan to stay for 30 to 40 minutes. What you’ll learn In 2018, my friends and I started making simple, reusable produce bags out of donated fabric that might otherwise go to landfill. So far, we’ve handed out 3,994 of these. Used weekly for one year, 3,944 cloth bag ..read more